Sigurd and his men sailed from Norway in the autumn of 1107 with sixty ships and perhaps around 5,000 men.[1] In the autumn he arrived in England, where Henry I was king. Sigurd and his men stayed there the entire winter, until the spring of 1108, when they again set sail westwards.

After several months they came to the town of Santiago de Compostela (Jakobsland)[3] in Galicia (Galizuland) where they were allowed by a local lord to stay for the winter. However, when the winter came there was a shortage of food, which caused the lord to refuse to sell food and goods to the Norwegians. Sigurd then gathered his army, attacked the lord's castle and looted what they could there.

In the spring they continued along the coast of Portugal, capturing eight Saracen galleys on their way, and then conquered a castle at Sintra (probably referring to Colares, which is closer to the sea), after which they continued to Lisbon, a "half Christian and half heathen" city, said to be on the dividing line between Christian and Muslim Iberia, where they won another battle. On their continued journey they sacked the town of Alkasse (possibly a reference to Al Qaşr), and then, on their way into the Mediterranean, near the Strait of Gibraltar (Norfasund), met and defeated a Muslim squadron.[3]

The route taken by Sigurd I to Jerusalem and Constantinople (red line) and back to Norway (green line) according to Heimskringla. (Legend in Old Norse.)

After entering the Mediterranean (Griklands hafi) they sailed along the coast of the land of the Saracens (Serkland) to the Balearic Islands. The Balearics were at the time perceived by Christians to be nothing more than a pirate haven and slaving center. The Norwegian raids are also the first recorded Christian attacks on the Islamic Balearic Islands (though smaller attacks certainly had occurred).[3]

The first place they arrived at was Formentera, where they encountered a great number of Blåmenn (Blue or black men) and Serkir (Saracens)[3] who had taken up their dwelling in a cave. The course of the fight is the most detailed of the entire crusade through written sources, and might possibly be the most notable historic event in the small island's history.[3] After this battle, the Norwegians supposedly acquired the greatest treasures they had ever acquired. They then went on to successfully attack Ibiza and then Menorca. The Norwegians seem to have avoided attacking the largest of the Balearic Islands, Majorca, most likely because it was at the time the most prosperous and well-fortified center of an independent taifa kingdom.[3] Tales of their success may have inspired the Catalan–Pisan conquest of the Balearics in 1113–1115.[3]

In the summer of 1110, they finally arrived at the port of Acre (Akrsborg)[3] (or perhaps in Jaffa),[1] and went to Jerusalem (Jorsala), where they met the ruling crusader kingBaldwin I. They were warmly welcomed, and Baldwin rode together with Sigurd to the river Jordan, and back again to Jerusalem.

The Norwegians were given many treasures and relics, including a splinter off the True Cross that Jesus had allegedly been crucified on. This was given on the condition that they would continue to promote Christianity and bring the relic to the burial site of St. Olaf.

Later, Sigurd returned to his ships at Acre, and when Baldwin was going to the Muslim town of Sidon (Sætt) in Syria (Sýrland), Sigurd and his men accompanied him in the siege. The town was then taken and subsequently the Lordship of Sidon was established.

After this, Sigurd and his men sailed to Constantinople (Miklagard), where Sigurd left all of his ships and valuable figureheads, and many of his men, and then made his way back to Norway by land, arriving there in 1111.[3]

1.
Crusades
–
The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned

2.
First Crusade
–
The First Crusade was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to capture the Holy Land, called by Pope Urban II in 1095. An additional goal became the principal objective—the Christian reconquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. During the crusades, nobility, knights, peasants and serfs from many regions of Western Europe travelled over land and by sea, first to Constantinople and then on towards Jerusalem. The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem, launched an assault on the city and they also established the crusader states of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. The First Crusade was followed by the Second to the Ninth Crusades and it was also the first major step towards reopening international trade in the West since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The majority view is that it had elements of both in its nature, the origin of the Crusades in general, and particularly that of the First Crusade, is widely debated among historians. The confusion is due to the numerous armies in the first crusade. The similar ideologies held the armies to similar goals, but the connections were rarely strong, the Umayyad Caliphate had conquered Syria, Egypt, and North Africa from the predominantly Christian Byzantine Empire, and Hispania from the Visigothic Kingdom. In North Africa, the Umayyad empire eventually collapsed and a number of smaller Muslim kingdoms emerged, such as the Aghlabids, who attacked Italy in the 9th century. Pisa, Genoa, and the Principality of Catalonia began to battle various Muslim kingdoms for control of the Mediterranean Basin, exemplified by the Mahdia campaign and battles at Majorca and Sardinia. Essentially, between the years 1096 and 1101 the Byzantine Greeks experienced the crusade as it arrived at Constantinople in three separate waves, in the early summer of 1096, the first large unruly group arrived on the outskirts of Constantinople. This wave was reported to be undisciplined and ill-equipped as an army and this first group is often called the Peasants’ or People’s Crusade. It was led by Peter the Hermit and Walter Sans Avoir and had no knowledge of or respect for the wishes of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The second wave was not under the command of the Emperor and was made up of a number of armies with their own commanders. Together, this group and the first wave numbered an estimated 60,000, the second wave was led by Hugh I, Count of Vermandois, the brother of King Philip I of France. Also among the wave were Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse. It was this wave of crusaders which later passed through Asia Minor, captured Antioch in 1098 and finally took Jerusalem 15 July 1099. ”The third wave, composed of contingents from Lombardy, France. At the western edge of Europe and of Islamic expansion, the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was well underway by the 11th century and it was intermittently ideological, as evidenced by the Codex Vigilanus compiled in 881

3.
Gerhard Munthe (painter)
–
Gerhard Peter Frantz Munthe was a Norwegian painter and illustrator. Munthe was born in Elverum to physician Christopher Pavels Munthe and his wife Christine Margrethe Pavels Aabel and he was a brother of historian Hartvig Andreas Munthe, writer Margrethe Munthe and military officer Carl Oscar Munthe. He was also a nephew of historian and cartographer Gerhard Munthe, through his mother he was a nephew of Andreas Leigh Aabel and Oluf Andreas Aabel, and a first cousin of Hauk Aabel. In December 1886 he married Sigrun Sandberg, between 1886 and 1890 Bjørn Bjørnson was his stepfather-in-law. Munthe and Sandberg settled in Sandvika and later Lysaker, also, Munthe had a studio at Ringstabekk for a short period. The couple divorced in 1919, the year she married Fridtjof Nansen. Munthe was a letter writer, and also published several articles. When Munthe moved to Christiania in 1863, his intention was to study medicine like his father and he studied under Johan Fredrik Eckersberg in 1870, and continued under Morten Müller and Knud Bergslien until 1874. Between 1874 and 1876 he studied under Andreas Achenbach and his third cousin Ludvig Munthe in Düsseldorf, from 1877 to 1882 he lived in Munich most of the time. However, many of his motifs were taken from Norway, at this time he painted in the naturalist style. He is represented with works in the National Gallery of Norway. Internationally he took part at the Exposition Universelle of 1900, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, from the 1890s he experimented with decorative art in the Arts and Crafts style. From 1896 to 1899 he was occupied with illustrating the works of Snorri Sturluson, together with Erik Werenskiold, some of his works were woven into large tapestries. He also created monumental decorations, some of which have been lost, Munthe was a member of the selection committee at Høstutstillingen from its start in 1882 to 1890. He was a member of the board of the National Gallery of Norway from 1892 to 1905 and Den norske Husflidsforening from 1897 to his death, and chair of the National Gallery from 1905 to 1907. He was made a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and a Knight of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog and he died in Bærum, but was buried in Elverum. Clicking on the thumbnail will give you the full image and information concerning it

4.
Iberian Peninsula
–
The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnɪnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe. The peninsula is divided between Portugal and Spain, comprising most of their territory. With an area of approximately 582,000 km2, it is the second largest European peninsula, at that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people. Strabos Iberia was delineated from Keltikē by the Pyrenees and included the land mass southwest of there. The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from the Phoenicians, hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia, which he wrote about circa 500 BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with. According to Strabo, prior historians used Iberia to mean the country side of the Ἶβηρος as far north as the river Rhône in France. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, elsewhere he says that Saguntum is on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia. Strabo refers to the Carretanians as people of the Iberian stock living in the Pyrenees, according to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia as synonyms. The confusion of the words was because of an overlapping in political, the Latin word Hiberia, similar to the Greek Iberia, literally translates to land of the Hiberians. This word was derived from the river Ebro, which the Romans called Hiberus, hiber was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BC. Virgil refers to the Ipacatos Hiberos in his Georgics, the Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania. As they became interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces, Hispania Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Lusitania, Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. Whatever language may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones, the Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the Ebro, Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin. The association was so known it was hardly necessary to state, for example. Pliny goes so far as to assert that the Greeks had called the whole of Spain Hiberia because of the Hiberus River, the river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BC between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian, uses Ibērus, with reference to this border, Polybius states that the native name is Ibēr, apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination

5.
Balearic Islands
–
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The four largest islands are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, there are many minor islands and islets close to the larger islands, including Cabrera, Dragonera and SEspalmador. The islands have a Mediterranean climate, and the four islands are all popular tourist destinations. Ibiza in particular is known as a party destination, attracting many of the worlds most popular DJs to its nightclubs. The islands culture and cuisine are similar to that of the rest of Spain but have their own distinctive features, the archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, with Palma de Mallorca as the capital. The 2007 Statute of Autonomy declares the Balearic Islands as one nationality of Spain, the co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Catalan and Spanish. Though now a part of Spain, throughout history the Balearic Islands have been under the rule of a number of different kingdoms, the official name of the Balearic Islands in Catalan is Illes Balears, while in Spanish they are known as the Islas Baleares. The term Balearic derives from Greek, of the various theories on the origins of the two ancient Greek and Latin names for the islands—Gymnasiae and Baleares—classical sources provide two. According to the Lycophrons Alexandra verses, the islands were called Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiae because its inhabitants were often nude, the Greek and Roman writers generally derive the name of the people from their skill as slingers, although Strabo regards the name as of Phoenician origin. He observed it was the Phoenician equivalent for lightly armoured soldiers the Greeks would have called γυμνῆτας/gymnetas, the root bal does point to a Phoenician origin, perhaps the islands were sacred to the god Baal and the resemblance to the Greek root ΒΑΛ is accidental. Indeed, it was usual Greek practice to assimilate local names into their own language, but the common Greek name of the islands is not Βαλεαρεῖς/Baleareis, but Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiai. The former was the used by the natives, as well as by the Carthaginians and Romans. The Balearic Islands are on a platform called the Balearic Promontory. They are cut by a network of northwest to southeast faults, the main islands of the autonomous community are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, all popular tourist destinations. Amongst the minor islands is Cabrera, the location of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park, the islands can be further grouped, with Majorca, Minorca, and Cabrera as the Gymnesian Islands, and Ibiza and Formentera as the Pityusic Islands, also referred to as the Pityuses. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the Balearic Islands unsurprisingly have typical mediterranean climates, the below-listed climatic data of the capital Palma is typical for the archipelago, with minor differences to other stations in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca. Little is recorded on the earliest inhabitants of the islands, though many legends exist, the story, preserved by Lycophron, that certain shipwrecked Greek Boeotians were cast nude on the islands, was evidently invented to account for the name Gymnesiae. There is also a tradition that the islands were colonised by Rhodes after the Trojan War, the islands had a very mixed population, of whose habits several strange stories are told

6.
Palestine (region)
–
Palestine is a geographic region in Western Asia between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is sometimes considered to include adjoining territories, the name was used by Ancient Greek writers, and was later used for the Roman province Syria Palaestina, the Byzantine Palaestina Prima, and the Islamic provincial district of Jund Filastin. The region comprises most of the claimed for the biblical regions known as the Land of Israel. Historically, it has known as the southern portion of wider regional designations such as Canaan, Syria, ash-Sham. The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history, today, the region comprises the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories in which the State of Palestine was declared. Modern archaeology has identified 12 ancient inscriptions from Egyptian and Assyrian records recording likely cognates of Hebrew Pelesheth, the term Peleset is found in five inscriptions referring to a neighboring people or land starting from c.1150 BCE during the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. Neither the Egyptian nor the Assyrian sources provided clear regional boundaries for the term, approximately a century later, Aristotle used a similar definition for the region in Meteorology, in which he included the Dead Sea. The term is accepted to be a translation of the Biblical name Peleshet. The term is used in the Septuagint, who used a transliteration Land of Phylistieim different from the contemporary Greek place name Palaistínē. Following the Muslim conquest, place names that were in use by the Byzantine administration generally continued to be used in Arabic, Modern archaeologists and historians of the region refer to their field of study as Levantine archaeology. The region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation, agricultural communities, during the Bronze Age, independent Canaanite city-states were established, and were influenced by the surrounding civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Minoan Crete, and Syria. Between 1550–1400 BCE, the Canaanite cities became vassals to the Egyptian New Kingdom who held power until the 1178 BCE Battle of Djahy during the wider Bronze Age collapse. The region became part of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from c.740 BCE, in 539 BCE, the Babylonian empire was replaced by the Achaemenid Empire. In the 330s BCE, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered the region and it ultimately fell to the Seleucid Empire between 219–200 BCE. In 116 BCE, a Seleucid civil war resulted in the independence of certain regions including the Hasmonean principality in the Judaean Mountains, from 110 BCE, the Hasmoneans extended their authority over much of Palestine, creating a Judaean–Samaritan–Idumaean–Ituraean–Galilean alliance. The Judaean control over the region resulted in it also becoming known as Judaea. Between 73–63 BCE, the Roman Republic extended its influence into the region in the Third Mithridatic War, conquering Judea in 63 BCE, and splitting the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts. The three-year Ministry of Jesus, culminating in his crucifixion, is estimated to have occurred from 28–30 CE, in 70 CE, Titus sacked Jerusalem, resulting in the dispersal of the citys Jews and Christians to Yavne and Pella

7.
Crusaders
–
The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned

8.
Kingdom of Jerusalem
–
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was a crusader state established in the Southern Levant by Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, the sometimes so-called First Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted from 1099 to 1187, when it was almost entirely overrun by Saladin. This second kingdom is called the Second Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Kingdom of Acre. Three other crusader states founded during and after the First Crusade were located north, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch. While all three were independent, they were tied to Jerusalem. Beyond these to the north and west lay the states of Armenian Cilicia, further east, various Muslim emirates were located which were ultimately allied with the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. Jerusalem itself fell to Saladin in 1187, and in the 13th century the kingdom was reduced to a few cities along the Mediterranean coast. In this period, the kingdom was ruled by the Lusignan dynasty of the Kingdom of Cyprus, dynastic ties also strengthened with Tripoli, Antioch, and Armenia. The kingdom was soon dominated by the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa. Emperor Frederick II claimed the kingdom by marriage, but his presence sparked a war among the kingdoms nobility. The kingdom became more than a pawn in the politics and warfare of the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties in Egypt, as well as the Khwarezmian. The Mamluk sultans Baibars and al-Ashraf Khalil eventually reconquered all the remaining crusader strongholds, the kingdom was ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse, although the crusaders themselves and their descendants were an elite Catholic minority. They imported many customs and institutions from their homelands in Western Europe, the kingdom also inherited oriental qualities, influenced by the pre-existing customs and populations. The majority of the inhabitants were native Christians, especially Greek and Syrian Orthodox, as well as Sunni. The native Christians and Muslims, who were a lower class, tended to speak Greek and Arabic, while the crusaders spoke French. There were also a number of Jews and Samaritans. According to the Jewish writer Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled through the kingdom around 1170, since sets a lower bound for the Samaritan population at 1,500, since the contemporary Tolidah, a Samaritan chronicle, also mentions communities in Gaza and Acre. The First Crusade was preached at the Council of Clermont in 1095 by Pope Urban II, however, the main objective quickly became the control of the Holy Land

9.
Republic of Venice
–
It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice. It was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages, the Venetian city state was founded as a safe haven for people escaping persecution in mainland Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. In its early years, it prospered on the salt trade, in subsequent centuries, the city state established a thalassocracy. It dominated trade on the Mediterranean Sea, including commerce between Asia, Europe and North Africa, the Venetian navy was used in the Crusades. Venice achieved territorial conquests along the Adriatic Sea, the city became home to an extremely wealthy merchant class, who patronized renowned art and architecture along the citys lagoons. Venetian merchants were influential financiers in Europe, the city was also the birthplace of great European explorers, including Marco Polo, as well as the classical music composer Vivaldi. The republic was ruled by the Doge, who was elected by members of the Great Council of Venice, the ruling class was an oligarchy of merchants and aristocrats. Venice and other Italian maritime republics played a key role in fostering capitalism, Venetian citizens generally supported the system of governance. The city-state enforced strict laws and employed ruthless tactics in its prisons, the opening of new trade routes to the Americas and the East Indies via the Atlantic Ocean marked the beginning of Venices decline as a maritime republic. The city state suffered defeats from the navy of the Ottoman Empire, in 1797, the country was colonized by Austria and France, following an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. Venice became a part of a unified Italy in the 19th century and it was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in reference to its title as one of the Most Serene Republics. He was the first historical Doge of Venice, whichever the case, the first doges had their power base in Heraclea. Ursuss successor, Deusdedit, moved his seat from Heraclea to Malamocco in the 740s and he was the son of Ursus and represented the attempt of his father to establish a dynasty. Such attempts were more commonplace among the doges of the first few centuries of Venetian history. They desired to remain well-connected to the Empire, another faction, republican in nature, believed in continuing along a course towards practical independence. The other main faction was pro-Frankish, supported mostly by clergy, they looked towards the new Carolingian king of the Franks, Pepin the Short, as the best provider of defence against the Lombards. A minor, pro-Lombard faction was opposed to close ties with any of these further-off powers, the successors of Obelerio inherited a united Venice. By the Pax Nicephori, the two emperors had recognised that Venice belonged to the Byzantine sphere of influence, many centuries later, the Venetians claimed that the treaty had recognised Venetian de facto independence, but the truth of this claim is doubted by modern scholars

10.
Hereditary Kingdom of Norway
–
The Kingdom of Norway as a unified realm was initiated by King Harald I Fairhair in the 9th century. His efforts in unifying the petty kingdoms of Norway, resulted in the first known Norwegian central government, the country however fragmented soon, and was collected into one entity in the first half of the 11th century. Norway has been a monarchy since then, passing through several eras, thus was born the medieval kingdom of Norway, the realm of the Fairhair dynasty. According to the view, Norway was the hereditary kingdom of this dynasty. The throne was inherited by all of Haralds male descendants after year 872, in the 13th century, the kingdom was officially declared hereditary by law, contrary to the other Scandinavian monarchies which were elective kingdoms in the Middle Ages. Harald Fairhair was the first king of Norway, as opposed to in Norway, the boundaries of Fairhairs kingdom were not identical to those of present-day Norway and upon his death the kingship was shared among his sons. Harald Fairhair unified Norway, at least the coastal areas north to Trøndelag, after his death, the fragmentation back into petty kingdoms happened almost instantly. However, most of them were now in the hands of Haralds putative sons, although there were districts in the hands of other dynasties, the concept of a central power on an hereditary basis had come into existence. It remains uncertain whether Norway can be defined as an hereditary kingdom even after the successions of Eric I of Norway and Haakon I of Norway, sons of Fairhair himself. Some historians put emphasis on the actual control over the country and assert that St. Olav. Olav is traditionally held to be the force behind Norways final conversion to Christianity. He was later revered as Rex Perpetuum Norvegiæ. The Fairhair dynasty can, however, be seen as an artificial construct, adherents of this proposal consider Harald Hardråde to be the actual dynastic founder. This claim has won wide, but not universal, acceptance among historians and it is a disputed question whether Harald Hardråde himself actually claimed inheritance from Harald Fairhair, or whether this claim was constructed later by his descendants. From our sources, it seems reasonable to assume that Olav II and Harald Hardråde were half-brothers, with a common mother, descent from the same mother was not in Germanic understanding a proper dynastic tie, and Harald Hardrådes supporters did not base his rights and claims on that. Instead, Harald Hardrådes father was supposedly a descendent, in male line. The same has been claimed regarding Olav IIs line, to researchers, one or perhaps both of these somewhat obscure male-line descents may be legendary. Research has generally shown a tendency to create a prestigious past to the country

11.
Saracens
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Saracen was a term widely used among Christian writers in Europe during the Middle Ages. The terms meaning evolved during its history, in Europe during the Early Medieval era, the term came to be associated with Arab tribes as well. By the 12th century, Saracen had become synonymous with Muslim in Medieval Latin literature, such expansion in the meaning of the term had begun centuries earlier among the Byzantine Romans, as evidenced in documents from the 8th century. In the Western languages before the 16th century, Saracen was commonly used to refer to Muslim Arabs, the term Saraceni might be derived from the Semitic triliteral root srq signifies to steal, rob, plunder. The noun sāriq - sariqīn means, ptolemys 2nd century work, Geography, describes Sarakēnē as a region in the northern Sinai Peninsula. Ptolemy also mentions a people called the Sarakēnoi living in the northwestern Arabian Peninsula, the Augustan History also refers to an attack by Saraceni on Pescennius Nigers army in Egypt in 193, but provides little information as to identifying them. Both Hippolytus of Rome and Uranius mention three distinct peoples in Arabia during the first half of the century, the Saraceni, the Taeni. The Taeni, later identified with the Arabic-speaking people called Tayy, were located around Khaybar, the Saraceni were placed north of them. These Saracens, located in the northern Hejaz, were described as people with a certain military ability who were opponents of the Roman Empire, the Saracens are described as forming the equites from Phoenicia and Thamud. In one document the defeated enemies of Diocletians campaign in the Syrian Desert are described as Saracens. Other 4th century military reports make no mention of Arabs but refer to as Saracens groups ranging as far east as Mesopotamia that were involved in battles on both the Sasanian and Roman sides. The Saracens were named in the Roman administrative document Notitia Dignitatum—dating from the time of Theodosius I in the 4th century—as comprising distinctive units in the Roman army and they were distinguished in the document from Arabs. Beginning no later than the fifth century, Christian writers began to equate Saracens with Arabs. Saracens were associated with Ishmaelites in some strands of Jewish, Christian and this claim was popular during the Middle Ages, but derives more from Paul’s allegory in the New Testament letter to the Galatians than from historical data. The name Saracen was not indigenous among the populations so described but was applied to them by Greco-Roman historians based on Greek place names. As the Middle Ages progressed, usage of the term in the Latin West changed, but its connotation remained negative, associated with opponents of Christianity, in an 8th-century polemical work, John of Damascus criticized the Saracens as followers of a false prophet and forerunner to the Antichrist. By the 12th century, Medieval Europeans had more specific conceptions of Islam and used the term Saracen as an ethnic, in some Medieval literature, Saracens—that is, Muslims—were described as black-skinned, while Christians were lighter-skinned. An example is in The King of Tars, a medieval romance, the Song of Roland, an Old French 11th-century heroic poem, refers to the black skin of Saracens as their only exotic feature

12.
Almoravid dynasty
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The Almoravid dynasty was a Berber imperial dynasty of Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that stretched over the western Maghreb, founded by Abdallah ibn Yasin, the Almoravid capital was Marrakesh, a city they founded in 1062. The dynasty originated among the Lamtuna and the Gudala, nomadic Berber tribes of the Sahara and this enabled them to control an empire that stretched 3,000 kilometers north to south. However, the rule of the dynasty was relatively short-lived, the Almoravids fell—at the height of their power—when they failed to quell the Masmuda-led rebellion initiated by Ibn Tumart. As a result, their last king Ishaq ibn Ali was killed in Marrakesh in April 1147 by the Almohad Caliphate, who replaced them as a ruling dynasty both in Morocco and Al-Andalus. The term Almoravid comes from the Arabic al-Murabitun, which is the form of al-Murabit—literally meaning one who is tying. The term is related to the notion of Ribat, a frontier monastery-fortress, another theory states that the name Almoravid comes from a school of Malikite law called Dar al-Murabitin founded in Sus al-Aksa, modern day Morocco, by a certain scholar named Waggag Ibn Zallu. Ibn Zallu sent his student Abdallah ibn Yasin to preach Malikite Islam to the Sanhaja Berbers of the Adrar, hence, the name of the Almoravids comes from the followers of the Dar al-Murabitin, the house of those who were bound together in the cause of God. It is uncertain exactly when or why the Almoravids acquired that appellation, al-Bakri, writing in 1068, before their apex, already calls them the al-Murabitun, but does not clarify the reasons for it. Ibn Idhari wrote that the name was suggested by Ibn Yasin in the persevering in the fight sense,1054, in which they had taken many losses. Whichever explanation is true, it seems certain the appellation was chosen by the Almoravids for themselves, the name might be related to the ribat of Waggag ibn Zallu in the village of Aglu, where the future Almoravid spiritual leader Abdallah ibn Yasin got his initial training. Contemporaries frequently referred to them as the al-mulathimun, the Almoravids veiled themselves below the eyes with a tagelmust, a custom they adapted from southern Sanhaja Berbers. Although practical for the desert dust, the Almoravids insisted on wearing the veil everywhere, as a badge of foreignness in urban settings and it served as the uniform of the Almoravids. Under their rule, sumptuary laws forbade anybody else from wearing the veil, in turn, the succeeding Almohads made a point of mocking the Almoravid veil as symbolic of effeminacy and decadence. The western Sanhaja had been converted to Islam some time in the 9th century and they were subsequently united in the 10th century and, with the zeal of neophyte converts, launched several campaigns against the Sudanese. Under their king Tinbarutan ibn Usfayshar, the Sanhaja Lamtuna erected the citadel of Awdaghust, after the collapse of the Sanhaja union, Awdagust passed over to the Ghana empire, and the trans-Saharan routes were taken over by the Zenata Maghrawa of Sijilmassa. The Maghrawa also exploited this disunion to dislodge the Sanhaja Gazzula and Lamta out of their pasturelands in the Sous, around 1035, the Lamtuna chieftain Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Tifat, tried to reunite the Sanhaja desert tribes, but his reign lasted less than three years. Around 1040, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, a chieftain of the Gudala, on his return, he stopped by Kairouan in Ifriqiya, where he met Abu Imran al-Fasi, a native of Fes and a jurist and scholar of the Sunni Maliki school

13.
Fatimid Caliphate
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The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa, from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The dynasty ruled across the Mediterranean coast of Africa and ultimately made Egypt the centre of the caliphate, at its height the caliphate included in addition to Egypt varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz. The Fatimids claimed descent from Fatima bint Muhammad, the daughter of Islamic prophet Muhammad, in 921 the Fatimids established the Tunisian city of Mahdia as their new capital. In 948 they shifted their capital to Al-Mansuriya, near Kairouan in Tunisia, in 969 they conquered Egypt and established Cairo as the capital of their caliphate, Egypt became the political, cultural, and religious centre of their empire. The ruling class belonged to the Ismaili branch of Shiism, as did the leaders of the dynasty, the existence of the caliphate marked the only time the descendants of Ali through Fatimah were united to any degree and the name Fatimid refers to Fatimah. The different term Fatimite is sometimes used to refer to the caliphates subjects, after the initial conquests, the caliphate often allowed a degree of religious tolerance towards non-Ismaili sects of Islam, as well as to Jews, Maltese Christians, and Egyptian Coptic Christians. The Fatimid caliphate was also distinguished by the role of Berbers in its initial establishment and in helping its development, especially on the military. During the late eleventh and twelfth centuries the Fatimid caliphate declined rapidly and he founded the Ayyubid dynasty and incorporated the Fatimid state into the Abbasid Caliphate. The Fatimid regime lasted until the twelfth century, though its leaders made little headway in persuading the Egyptian population. The Fatimid Caliphates religious ideology originated in an Ismaili Shia movement launched in the 9th century in Salamiyah, Syria by their eighth Imam and he claimed descent through Ismail, the seventh Ismaili Imam, from Fatimah and her husband ʻAlī ibn-Abī-Tālib, the first Shīʻa Imām. Thus his name was al-Fātimiyyūn Fatimid, the eighth to tenth Imams, remained hidden and worked for the movement against the periods times rulers. According to legend, Abdullah and his son were fulfilling a prophecy that the mahdi would come from Mesopotamia to Sijilmasa. They hid among the population of Sijilmasa, then an independent emirate, for four years under the countenance of the Midrar rulers, al-Mahdi was supported by dedicated Shiite Abu Abdullah al-Shii, and al-Shii started his preaching after he encountered a group of Muslim North African during his hajj. These men bragged about the country of the Kutama in western Ifriqiya, and the hostility of the Kutama towards, and their independence from. This triggered al-Shii to travel to the region, where he started to preach the Ismaili doctrine, the Berber peasants, who had been oppressed for decades by the corrupt Aghlabid rule, would prove themselves to be a perfect basis for sedition. Instantly, al-Shii began conquering cities in the region, first Mila, then Sétif, Kairouan, and eventually Raqqada, in 909 Al-Shii sent a large expedition force to rescue the Mahdi, conquering the Khariji state of Tahert on its way there. After gaining his freedom, Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah became the leader of the state and assumed the position of imam. The Fatimids existed during the Islamic Golden Age, the dynasty was founded in 909 by the eleventh Imam ʻAbdullāh al-Mahdī Billah

14.
Sigurd I of Norway
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Sigurd I Magnusson, also known as Sigurd the Crusader, was King of Norway from 1103 to 1130. His rule, together with his half-brother Øystein, has been regarded by historians as an age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway. He is otherwise famous for leading the Norwegian Crusade, earning the eponym the Crusader, Sigurd was one of the three sons to King Magnus III, the other two being Øystein and Olaf. They were all sons of the king with different mothers. To avoid feuds or war, the three half-brothers co-ruled the kingdom from 1103, Sigurd would rule alone after Olaf died in 1115 and Øystein in 1123. Before being proclaimed King of Norway, Sigurd was also styled as King of the Isles and he would pass the Earl of Orkney title on to Haakon Paulsson, a son of Paul Thorfinnsson. Many historians have viewed Sigurd and Øysteins rule as an age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway. The country was able to both in wealth and expansion, Sigurds participation in the crusades as well as gained international recognition. In 1098, Sigurd accompanied his father, King Magnus III, on his expedition to the Orkney Islands, Hebrides and he was made Earl of Orkney the same year, following the swift removal of the incumbent Earls of Orkney, Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson. He was also apparently, made King of the Isles in that year, following the overthrow of their king by his father. Although Magnus was not directly responsible for the death of the previous King of the Isles, he was the ruler of the kingdom. This was the first time the kingdom had been under control by a Norwegian king. It is not certain whether Sigurd returned home with his father to Norway after the 1098 expedition, however, it is known that he was in Orkney when Magnus returned west in 1102 for his next expedition. While there, an alliance was negotiated between Magnus and Muircheartach Ua Briain. He was High King of Ireland, one of the most powerful rulers in Ireland, Sigurd was to marry Muirchertachs daughter Bjaðmunjo, a young Irish princess and for a short period, Queen consort. When King Magnus was ambushed and killed in Ulaid by an Irish army in 1103, upon arriving in Norway, he and his two brothers, Øystein and Olav, were proclaimed kings of Norway and would co-rule the kingdom together for some time. The expeditions conducted by Magnus were somewhat profitable to the Kingdom of Norway, as the islands now under Norway would provide wealth, defences. However the Hebrides and Mann quickly re-asserted their independence after Magnus death, in 1107, Sigurd led the Norwegian Crusade to support the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem which had been founded after the First Crusade

15.
Baldwin I of Jerusalem
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Baldwin I of Jerusalem, formerly Baldwin I of Edessa, born Baldwin of Boulogne,1058. –2 April 1118, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade and he was the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, who was the first ruler of the crusader state of Jerusalem, although Godfrey refused the title of king which Baldwin accepted. Baldwin was a son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne and Ida of Lorraine, and he became a cleric, it is said, and, because of his illustrious lineage, held benefices commonly called prebends in the churches of Reims, Cambrai, and Liège. Afterwards he lived in Normandy, where he married Godehilde de Toeni and he returned to Lower Lorraine in order to take control of the county of Verdun. In 1096 he joined the First Crusade with his brothers Godfrey and Eustace III of Boulogne and his wife Godehilde also accompanied him. When Godfrey passed through Hungary, King Coloman demanded a hostage to ensure their good conduct, after entering Byzantine territory, there were a few skirmishes with the Greeks, who had also suffered from the Peoples Crusade. Baldwin commanded a detachment of troops captured a bridge in the vicinity of Constantinople. The hostage, his son the future emperor John II Comnenus, was entrusted to the care of Baldwin, according to Anna Comnena, Baldwin reprimanded one of his soldiers who dared to sit on Alexius throne in Constantinople. Baldwin accompanied his brothers as far as Heraclea in Asia Minor, Tancred was surely seeking to capture some land and establish himself as a petty ruler in the east, and Baldwin may have had the same goal. During his absence his wife fell ill and died at Marash, some historians have suggested that his entire strategy changed from that point, others believe that the change happened earlier. In September 1097 he took Tarsus from Tancred, and installed his own garrison in the city, Tancred and Baldwins armies skirmished briefly at Mamistra, but the two never came to open warfare and Tancred marched on towards Antioch. After rejoining the army at Marash, Baldwin received an invitation from an Armenian named Bagrat, and moved eastwards towards the Euphrates. Another invitation came from Thoros of Edessa, where Baldwin was adopted as Thoros son, when Thoros was assassinated in March 1098, Baldwin became the first count of Edessa, although it is unknown if he played any role in the assassination. He ruled the county until 1100, marrying Arda, the daughter of Thoros of Marash, during these two years he captured Samosata and Suruç from the Muslims, and defeated a conspiracy by some of his Armenian subjects in 1098. During the Siege of Antioch he sent money and food to his fellow crusaders, kerbogha, the governor of Mosul, was marching to relieve Antioch but first stopped at Edessa, which he besieged for three weeks, to no avail. Kerbogha was later defeated at Antioch and the established a principality there. Later that year Baldwin had consolidated his power enough that he was able to march out with his brother Godfrey, at the end of 1099 he visited Jerusalem along with Bohemund I of Antioch, but he returned to Edessa in January,1100. After returning to Edessa, Baldwin aided in relieving the siege of Melitene, the Armenian ruler of the city, Gabriel, then recognized Baldwin as overlord of the city

16.
Ordelafo Faliero
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Ordelafo Faliero de Doni was the 34th Doge of Venice. He was the son of the 32nd doge, Vitale Faliero de Doni and his first name, which is otherwise unknown in Venetian history, is thought to have been derived from a backwards spelling of the Venetian name Faledro. During his reign as Doge, Faliero went to war against the Hungarians, ruled at the time by Coloman, Faliero succeeded in recapturing Zara and Sebenico. Afterwards, Faliero was engaged in an expedition to Syria, comprising 100 Venetian ships, objects from the local Syrian convent of Christ Pantocrator were taken back to Saint Marks Basilica. In Venice, Faliero established the nucleus of what would become the Arsenal and he was married to Matelda, traditionally portrayed as an ideal of spousal fidelity. He was killed at Zara during a battle against the Hungarians, pala dOro ^ Staley, Edgcumbe, The dogaressas of Venice, The wives of the doges

17.
Galley
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A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by rowing. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used in favorable winds, but human strength was always the primary method of propulsion. This allowed galleys to navigate independently of winds and currents, Galleys were the warships used by the early Mediterranean naval powers, including the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans. They remained the dominant types of vessels used for war and piracy in the Mediterranean Sea until the last decades of the 16th century and they were the first ships to effectively use heavy cannons as anti-ship weapons. As highly efficient gun platforms they forced changes in the design of medieval seaside fortresses as well as refinement of sailing warships. The zenith of galley usage in warfare came in the late 16th century with battles like that at Lepanto in 1571, by the 17th century, however, sailing ships and hybrid ships like the xebec displaced galleys in naval warfare. From the mid-16th century galleys were in intermittent use in the Baltic Sea, with its short distances, there was a minor revival of galley warfare in the 18th century in the wars between Russia, Sweden and Denmark. The term galley derives from the medieval Greek galea, a version of the dromon. The origin of the Greek word is unclear but could possibly be related to galeos, the word galley has been attested in English from c. It was only from the 16th century that a unified galley concept came in use, before that, particularly in antiquity, there was a wide variety of terms used for different types of galleys. Ancient galleys were named according to the number of oars, the number of banks of oars or lines of rowers, the terms are based on contemporary language use combined with more recent compounds of Greek and Latin words. The earliest Greek single-banked galleys are called triaconters and penteconters, for later galleys with more than one row of oars, the terminology is based on Latin numerals with the suffix -reme from rēmus, oar. A monoreme has one bank of oars, a two and a trireme three. Since the maximum banks of oars was three, any expansion above that did not refer to additional banks of oars, but of additional rowers for every oar. Quinquereme was literally a five-oar, but actually meant that there were several rowers to certain banks of oars which made up five lines of oar handlers, for simplicity, they have by many modern scholars been referred to as fives, sixes, eights, elevens, etc. Anything above six or seven rows of rowers was not common, any galley with more than three or four lines of rowers is often referred to as a polyreme. Oared military vessels built on the British Isles in the 11th to 13th centuries were based on Scandinavian designs, many of them were similar to birlinns, close relatives of longship types like the snekkja. By the 14th century, they were replaced with balingers in southern Britain while longship-type Irish galleys remained in use throughout the Middle Ages in northern Britain, Medieval and early modern galleys used a different terminology than their ancient predecessors

18.
Crusade of 1101
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The Crusade of 1101 was a minor crusade of three separate movements, organized in 1100 and 1101 in the successful aftermath of the First Crusade. It is also called the Crusade of the Faint-Hearted due to the number of participants who joined this crusade after having turned back from the First Crusade. Calls for reinforcements from the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Pope Paschal II, successor to Pope Urban II and he especially urged those who had taken the crusade vow but had never departed, and those who had turned back while on the march. As in the first crusade, the pilgrims and soldiers did not leave as a part of one large army, in September 1100, a large group of Lombards left from Milan. These were mostly untrained peasants, led by Anselm IV, Archbishop of Milan, when they reached the territory of the Byzantine Empire, they pillaged it recklessly, and Byzantine emperor Alexios I escorted them to a camp outside Constantinople. This did not satisfy them, and they made their way inside the city where they pillaged the Blachernae palace, the Lombards were quickly ferried across the Bosporus and made their camp at Nicomedia, to wait for reinforcements. Joining them at Nicomedia was Raymond IV of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the First Crusade who was now in the service of the emperor. He was appointed leader, and a Byzantine force of Pecheneg mercenaries was sent out with them under the command of General Tzitas. This group marched out at the end of May, towards Dorylaeum, following the route taken by Raymond, after capturing Ancyra on June 23,1101, and returning it to Alexios, the crusaders turned north. They briefly besieged the heavily garrisoned city of Gangra, and then continued north to attempt to capture the Turkish-controlled city of Kastamonu, however, they came under attack from the Seljuq Turks who harassed them for weeks, and a foraging party was destroyed in July. However, the Seljuqs, under Kilij Arslan I, realizing that disunity was the cause of their inability to stop the First Crusade, had now allied with both the Danishmends and Ridwan of Aleppo, in early August the crusaders met this combined Muslim army at Mersivan. The crusaders organized into five divisions, the Burgundians, Raymond and the Byzantines, the Germans, the French, the Turks nearly destroyed the crusaders’ army near the mountains of Paphlagonia at Mersivan. The land was well-suited to the Turks—dry and inhospitable for their enemy, it was open, the battle took place over several days. On the first day, the Turks cut off the crusading armies’ advances, the next day, Duke Conrad led his Germans in a raid that failed miserably. Not only did fail to open the Turkish lines, they were unable to return to the main crusader army and had to take refuge in a nearby stronghold. This meant that they were cut off supplies, aid. The third day was quiet, with little or no serious fighting taking place, but on the fourth day. The crusaders inflicted heavy losses on the Turks, but the attack was a failure by the end of the day, Kilij Arslan was joined by Ridwan of Aleppo and other powerful Danishmend princes

19.
Venetian Crusade
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The Venetian Crusade of 1122–24 was an expedition to the Holy Land launched by the Republic of Venice that succeeded in capturing Tyre. It was an important victory at the start of a period when the Kingdom of Jerusalem would expand to its greatest extent under King Baldwin II, the Venetians gained valuable trading concessions in Tyre. Baldwin de Burg was a nephew of Baldwin I of Jerusalem, in 1118 his uncle died and he became King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. In the Battle of Ager Sanguinis, fought near Sarmada on 28 June 1119, the Franks suffered a defeat by the forces of Ilghazi. Later that year Baldwin regained some territory, but the Franks were seriously weakened, Baldwin asked for help from Pope Callixtus II. The pope forwarded the request to Venice, the terms of the crusade were agreed through negotiations between the envoys of Baldwin II and the doge of Venice. The church also extended its protection to the families and property of the crusaders, in 1122 the Doge of Venice, Domenico Michiel, launched the seaborne crusade. The Venetian fleet of more than 120 ships carrying over 15,000 men left the Venetian Lagoon on 8 August 1122 and this seems to have been the first crusade in which the knights brought their horses with them. They invested Corfu, then a possession of the Byzantine Empire, in 1123 Baldwin II was captured by Balak of Mardin, emir of Aleppo, and imprisoned in Kharput. Eustace Graverius became regent of Jerusalem, the Venetians abandoned the siege of Corfu when they heard this news, and reached the Palestinian coast in May 1123. The Venetian fleet arrived at Acre at the end of May and was informed about a Fatimid fleet, of around a hundred sail, sailing towards Ascalon. in order to assist the Emir Balak at his siege. Thus the Venetian fleet sailed south in order to meet it, with the intend to divert the fleet off Ascalon. The Egyptians fell into the trap assuming an easy victory they were now caught between two Venetian squadrons and outnumbered. Some 4,000 Saracens were killed including the Fatimid admiral and 9 vessels captured with the Venetians adding to their triumph the capture of 10 merchant vessels on rout back to Acre, both Fulcher of Chartres and William of Tyre recorded the event. On this the ships followed in haste and fell almost all the other enemy ships around. But the shores, they say, were so covered with the corpses that were ejected from the sea, that the air was tainted. At lengths the fight continued man against man, and most heatedly one side was trying to advance while the side tried to resist. Finally, however, the Venetians were with Gods help victorious On 15 February 1124 the Venetians, the seaport of Tyre, now in Lebanon, was part of the territory of Toghtekin, the Atabeg of Damascus

20.
Second Crusade
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The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe as a Catholic holy war against Islam. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi, the county had been founded during the First Crusade by King Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098. While it was the first Crusader state to be founded, it was also the first to fall, the armies of the two kings marched separately across Europe. After crossing Byzantine territory into Anatolia, both armies were defeated by the Seljuk Turks. Louis and Conrad and the remnants of their armies reached Jerusalem, the crusade in the east was a failure for the crusaders and a great victory for the Muslims. It would ultimately have a key influence on the fall of Jerusalem, the only Christian success of the Second Crusade came to a combined force of 13,000 Flemish, Frisian, Norman, English, Scottish, and German crusaders in 1147. Travelling from England, by ship, to the Holy Land, after the First Crusade and the minor Crusade of 1101 there were three crusader states established in the east, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa. A fourth, the County of Tripoli, was established in 1109, Count Baldwin II and future count Joscelin of Courtenay were taken captive after their defeat at the Battle of Harran in 1104. Baldwin and Joscelin were both captured a second time in 1122, and although Edessa recovered somewhat after the Battle of Azaz in 1125, Joscelin was killed in battle in 1131. His successor Joscelin II was forced into an alliance with the Byzantine Empire, Joscelin had also quarreled with the Count of Tripoli and the Prince of Antioch, leaving Edessa with no powerful allies. Meanwhile, the Seljuq Zengi, Atabeg of Mosul, had added to his rule in 1128 Aleppo, both Zengi and King Baldwin II turned their attention towards Damascus, Baldwin was defeated outside the great city in 1129. Damascus, ruled by the Burid Dynasty, later allied with King Fulk when Zengi besieged the city in 1139 and 1140, in late 1144, Joscelin II allied with the Ortoqids and marched out of Edessa with almost his entire army to support the Ortoqid army against Aleppo. Zengi, already seeking to take advantage of Fulks death in 1143, hurried north to besiege Edessa, manasses of Hierges, Philip of Milly and others were sent from Jerusalem to assist, but arrived too late. Joscelin II continued to rule the remnants of the county from Turbessel, Zengi himself was praised throughout Islam as defender of the faith and al-Malik al-Mansur, the victorious king. He did not pursue an attack on the territory of Edessa, or the Principality of Antioch. Events in Mosul compelled him to home, and he once again set his sights on Damascus. However, he was assassinated by a slave in 1146 and was succeeded in Aleppo by his son Nur ad-Din, the news of the fall of Edessa was brought back to Europe first by pilgrims early in 1145, and then by embassies from Antioch, Jerusalem and Armenia. Bishop Hugh of Jabala reported the news to Pope Eugene III, Hugh also told the Pope of an eastern Christian king, who, it was hoped, would bring relief to the crusader states, this is the first documented mention of Prester John

21.
Third Crusade
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The Third Crusade, also known as The Kings Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin. After the failure of the Second Crusade, the Zengid dynasty controlled a unified Syria, the Egyptian and Syrian forces were ultimately unified under Saladin, who employed them to reduce the Christian states and recapture Jerusalem in 1187. Spurred by religious zeal, King Henry II of England and King Philip II of France ended their conflict with other to lead a new crusade. The death of Henry in 1189, however, meant the English contingent came under the command of his successor and his death caused tremendous grief among the German Crusaders, and most of his troops returned home. After the Crusaders had driven the Muslims from Acre, Philip in company with Fredericks successor, Leopold V, Duke of Austria, on 2 September 1192, Richard and Saladin finalized a treaty granting Muslim control over Jerusalem but allowing unarmed Christian pilgrims and merchants to visit the city. Richard departed the Holy Land on 2 October, the successes of the Third Crusade allowed the Crusaders to maintain considerable states in Cyprus and on the Syrian coast. However, the failure to recapture Jerusalem would lead to the Fourth Crusade, after the failure of the Second Crusade, Nur ad-Din Zangi had control of Damascus and a unified Syria. Eager to expand his power, Nur ad-Din set his sights on the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt, in 1163, Nur ad-Din sent his most trusted general, Shirkuh, on a military expedition to the Nile. Accompanying the general was his nephew, Saladin. With Shirkuhs troops camped outside of Cairo, Egypts sultan Shawar called on King Amalric I of Jerusalem for assistance, in response, Amalric sent an army into Egypt and attacked Shirkuhs troops at Bilbeis in 1164. Nur ad-Din sent the scalps of the Christian defenders to Egypt for Shirkuh to proudly display at Bilbeis for Amalrics soldiers to see and this action prompted both Amalric and Shirkuh to lead their armies out of Egypt. In 1167, Nur ad-Din again sent Shirkuh to conquer the Fatimids in Egypt, Shawar again opted to call upon Amalric to defend his territory. The combined Egyptian-Christian forces pursued Shirkuh until he retreated to Alexandria, Amalric then breached his alliance with Shawar by turning his forces on Egypt and besieging the city of Bilbeis. Shawar pleaded with his enemy, Nur ad-Din, to save him from Amalrics treachery. Lacking the resources to maintain a siege of Cairo against the combined forces of Nur ad-Din and Shawar. This new alliance gave Nur ad-Din rule over all of Syria. Shawar was executed for his alliances with the Christian forces, in 1169, Shirkuh died unexpectedly after only weeks of rule. Shirkuhs successor was his nephew, Salah ad-Din Yusuf, commonly known as Saladin, Nur ad-Din died in 1174, leaving the new empire to his 11-year-old son, As-Salih

22.
Crusade of 1197
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Thus the military campaign is also known as the Emperors Crusade. While his forces were already on their way to the Holy Land, the nobles remaining on the campaign captured the Levant coast between Tyre and Tripoli before returning to Germany. The Crusade ended abruptly after the fall of Sidon and Beirut in 1198, on 2 October 1187 the Ayyubid sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem and large parts of the Crusader states. In an effort to reclaim the Outremer estates, the Third Crusade was launched by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England, and Emperor Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire in 1189. Frederick departed with a army, defeated a Seljuk contingent near Philomelion and captured Iconium. Henry VI, elected King of the Romans since 1169, succeeded his father Frederick and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Celestine III in 1191, in 1194 Henry could assert the inheritance claims of his wife Constance by conquering the Kingdom of Sicily. By declaring a new Crusade to reconquer Jerusalem, Henry aimed at an agreement with Pope Celestine III to acknowledge his rule over Sicily, in 1195 the armistice concluded by King Richard ended. Sultan Saladin had already died in 1193 and a conflict over his succession raged in the Ayyubid lands, in view of these favourable developments, the emperor hoped to continue the momentum of the previous campaign. Henry VI decided to take advantage of his fathers threat of force against the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Isaac II Angelos had maintained close ties with the Sicilian ursurper king Tancred of Lecce, he was overthrown in April 1195 by his brother Alexios III Angelos. Henry took the occasion to exact tribute and had a letter sent to the Byzantine emperor in order to finance the planned Crusade. Alexius immediately submitted to the demands and exacted high taxes from his subjects to pay the Crusaders 5,000 pounds of gold. Henry also forged alliances with King Amalric of Cyprus and Prince Leo of Cilicia, during the Holy Week of 1195, Emperor Henry made a pledge and at the Easter celebrations in Bari publicly announced the Crusade. In summer he was travelling through Germany in order to gain supporters. Bretislaus III, Duke of Bohemia had agreed to join the Crusade at the Diet in Worms on December 1195, in March 1197 Henry proceeded to the Kingdom of Sicily. The crusaders embarked for Acre, while the emperor first had to suppress a revolt in Catania. Still in Sicily, out for hunting near Fiumedinisi in August, Emperor Henry fell ill with chills and he died on September 28 before he could set sail for the Holy Land. They captured the wealthy and important city of Sidon and on October 24 entered Beirut, with the support of the Princes, Emperor Henrys vassal King Amalric of Cyprus married Queen Isabella and was crowned King of Jerusalem in 1198. The crusaders continued their campaign and by reconquering the estates around Byblos Castle restored the link to the County of Tripoli

23.
Fourth Crusade
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The Fourth Crusade was a Western European armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III, originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the intention of the crusaders was then to continue to the Holy Land with promised Byzantine financial and military assistance. On 23 June 1203 the main fleet reached Constantinople. In August 1203, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios Angelos was crowned co-Emperor with crusader support, however, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising in Constantinople. In April 1204, they captured and brutally sacked the city, Byzantine resistance based in unconquered sections of the empire such as Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus ultimately recovered Constantinople in 1261. Ayyubid Sultan Saladin had conquered most of the Frankish, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the ancient city itself, the Kingdom had been established 88 years before, after the capture and sack of Jerusalem in the First Crusade. The city was sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, Saladin led a Muslim dynasty, and his incorporation of Jerusalem into his domains shocked and dismayed the Catholic countries of Western Europe. Legend has it that Pope Urban III literally died of the shock, the crusader states had been reduced to three cities along the sea coast, Tyre, Tripoli, and Antioch. The Third Crusade reclaimed an extensive amount of territory for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the key towns of Acre and Jaffa, but had failed to retake Jerusalem. The crusade had also marked by a significant escalation in long standing tensions between the feudal states of western Europe and the Byzantine Empire, centred in Constantinople. The experiences of the first two crusades had thrown into relief the vast cultural differences between the two Christian civilisations. For their part, the educated and wealthy Byzantines maintained a sense of cultural, organizational. Constantinople had been in existence for 874 years at the time of the Fourth Crusade and was the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom. Almost alone amongst major medieval urban centres, it had retained the civic structures, public baths, forums, monuments, at its height, the city held an estimated population of about half a million people behind thirteen miles of triple walls. As a result, it was both a rival and a target for the aggressive new states of the west, notably the Republic of Venice. Crusaders also seized the breakaway Byzantine province of Cyprus, rather than return it to the Empire, barbarossa died on crusade, and his army quickly disintegrated, leaving the English and French, who had come by sea, to fight Saladin. There they captured Sidon and Beirut, but at the news of Henrys death in Messina along the way, many of the nobles, deserted by much of their leadership, the rank and file crusaders panicked before an Egyptian army and fled to their ships in Tyre. Also in 1195, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos was deposed in favour of his brother by a palace coup, ascending as Alexios III Angelos, the new emperor had his brother blinded and exiled

24.
Fifth Crusade
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The Fifth Crusade was an attempt by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt. Later in 1218, a German army led by Oliver of Cologne, in order to attack Damietta in Egypt, they allied in Anatolia with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm which attacked the Ayyubids in Syria in an attempt to free the Crusaders from fighting on two fronts. After occupying the port of Damietta, the Crusaders marched south towards Cairo in July 1221, a nighttime attack by Sultan Al-Kamil resulted in a great number of crusader losses, and eventually in the surrender of the army. Al-Kamil agreed to a peace agreement with Europe. Pope Innocent III had already planned since 1208 a crusade to recapture Jerusalem, in April 1213 he issued the papal bull Quia maior, calling all of Christendom to join a new crusade. This was followed by another bull, the Ad Liberandam in 1215. Pope Innocent wanted it to be led by the papacy, as the First Crusade should have been, to avoid the mistakes of the Fourth Crusade, which had been taken over by the Venetians. Pope Innocent planned for the crusaders to meet at Brindisi in 1216, every crusader would receive an indulgence, including those who simply helped pay the expenses of a crusader, but did not go on crusade themselves. Oliver of Cologne had preached the crusade in Germany, and Emperor Frederick II attempted to join in 1215, Frederick was the last monarch Innocent wanted to join, as he had challenged the Papacy. Innocent died in 1216 and was succeeded by Pope Honorius III, who barred Frederick from participating, Andrew had the largest royal army in the history of the crusades. The first to take up the cross in the Fifth Crusade was King Andrew II of Hungary, Andrew and his troops embarked on 23 August 1217, in Split. They were transported by the Venetian fleet, which was the largest European fleet in the era, until his return to Hungary, king Andrew remained the leader of Christian forces in the Fifth Crusade. In Jerusalem, the walls and fortifications were demolished to prevent the Christians from being able to defend the city, if they did manage to reach it, Muslims fled the city, afraid that there would be a repeat of the bloodbath of the First Crusade in 1099. King Andrews well-mounted army defeated sultan Al-Adil I at Bethsaida on the Jordan River on 10 November 1217, muslim forces retreated in their fortresses and towns. The crusaders catapults and trebuchets did not arrive in time, so they had fruitless assaults on the fortresses of the Lebanon and on Mount Tabor, afterwards, Andrew spent his time collecting alleged relics. At the beginning of 1218 Andrew, who was very sick, Andrew and his army departed to Hungary in February 1218, and Bohemund and Hugh also returned home. Later in 1218 Oliver of Cologne arrived with a new German army, with Leopold and John they discussed attacking Damietta in Egypt. To accomplish this, they allied with Keykavus I, the leader in Anatolia, in July 1218 the crusaders began their siege of Damietta, and despite resistance from the unprepared sultan Al-Adil, the tower outside the city was taken on August 25

25.
Sixth Crusade
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The Sixth Crusade started in 1228 as an attempt to regain Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade, however, Frederick again promised to go on a crusade after his coronation as emperor in 1220 by Pope Honorius III. In 1225 Frederick married Yolande of Jerusalem, daughter of John of Brienne, Frederick now had a claim to the truncated kingdom, and reason to attempt to restore it. In 1227, after Gregory IX became pope, Frederick and his army set sail from Brindisi, Italy, for Acre, Gregory stated that the reason for the excommunication was Fredericks reluctance to go on crusade, dating back to the Fifth Crusade. Frederick attempted to negotiate with the pope, but eventually decided to ignore him, Frederick claimed that his regency was illegitimate and demanded the surrender of Johns mainland fief of Beirut to the imperial throne. Here he erred, for John pointed out that the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem were constitutionally separate and this would have important consequences for the crusade, as it alienated the powerful Ibelin faction, turning them against the emperor. Acre, as the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Fredericks own army and the Teutonic Knights supported him, but Patriarch Gerald of Lausanne followed the papal line. Once news of Fredericks excommunication had spread, public support for him waned considerably, the native barons greeted Frederick enthusiastically at first, but were wary of the emperors history of centralization and his desire to impose imperial authority. This was largely due to Fredericks treatment of John of Ibelin in Cyprus, even with the military orders on board, Fredericks force was a mere shadow of the army that had amassed when the crusade had originally been called. He realised that his hope of success in the Holy Land was to negotiate for the surrender of Jerusalem as he lacked the manpower to engage the Ayyubid empire in battle. The Egyptian sultan, occupied with the suppression of rebellious forces in Syria, agreed to cede Jerusalem to the Franks, in addition, Frederick received Nazareth, Sidon, Jaffa, and Bethlehem. Other lordships may have returned to Christian control, but sources disagree. It was, however, a treaty of compromise, the Muslims retained control over the Temple Mount area of Jerusalem, the al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock. The treaty, completed on 18 February 1229, safeguarded a 10-year truce, one of the results of the treaty was that Jews were once more prohibited from living in Jerusalem. This agreement should not be confused with the 1192 Treaty of Jaffa between Saladin and Richard Lionheart, Frederick entered Jerusalem on 17 March 1229, and attended a crown-wearing ceremony the following day. It is unknown whether he intended this to be interpreted as his coronation as King of Jerusalem, in any case the absence of the patriarch, Gerald. There is evidence to suggest that the crown Frederick wore was actually the imperial one, as Frederick had matters to attend to at home, he left Jerusalem in May

26.
Seventh Crusade
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The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. In 1244, the Khwarezmians, recently displaced by the advance of the Mongols and this time, despite calls from the Pope, there was no popular enthusiasm for a new crusade. There were also many conflicts within Europe that kept its leaders from embarking on the Crusade, Pope Innocent IV and Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor continued the papal-imperial struggle. Frederick had captured and imprisoned clerics on their way to the First Council of Lyon, Pope Gregory IX had also earlier offered King Louis brother, count Robert of Artois, the German throne, but Louis had refused. Thus, the Holy Roman Emperor was in no position to crusade, béla IV of Hungary was rebuilding his kingdom from the ashes after the devastating Mongol invasion of 1241. Henry III of England was still struggling with Simon de Montfort, Louis IX had also invited King Haakon IV of Norway to crusade, sending the English chronicler Matthew Paris as an ambassador, but again was unsuccessful. The only man interested in beginning another crusade therefore was Louis IX, France was perhaps one of the strongest states in Europe at the time, as the Albigensian Crusade had brought Provence into Parisian control. Poitou was ruled by Louis IXs brother Alphonse of Poitiers, who joined him on his crusade in 1245, another brother, Charles I of Anjou, also joined Louis. Louis IXs financial preparations for this expedition were comparatively well organized, however, many nobles who joined Louis on the expedition had to borrow money from the royal treasury, and the crusade turned out to be very expensive. Nonetheless, Egypt was the object of his crusade, and he landed in 1249 at Damietta on the Nile, Egypt would, Louis thought, provide a base from which to attack Jerusalem, and its wealth and supply of grain would keep the crusaders fed and equipped. On 6 June Damietta was taken with little resistance from the Egyptians, who withdrew further up the Nile. The flooding of the Nile had not been taken into account, however, and it soon grounded Louis and his army at Damietta for six months, where the knights sat back and enjoyed the spoils of war. A force led by Robert of Artois and the Templars attacked the Egyptian camp at Gideila and advanced to Al Mansurah where they were defeated at the Battle of Al Mansurah, and Robert was killed. Meanwhile, Louis main force was attacked by the Mameluk Baibars, the commander of the army and a future sultan himself. Louis was defeated as well, but he did not withdraw to Damietta for months, preferring to besiege Mansourah, which ended in starvation and death for the crusaders rather than the Muslims. In showing utter agony, a Templar knight lamented, In March 1250 Louis finally tried to return to Damietta, Louis fell ill with dysentery, and was cured by an Arab physician. In May he was ransomed for 800,000 bezants, half of which was to be paid before the King left Egypt, upon this, he immediately left Egypt for Acre, one of few remaining crusader possessions in Syria. Louis made an alliance with the Mamluks, who at the time were rivals of the Sultan of Damascus, although the Kingdom of Cyprus claimed authority there, Louis was the de facto ruler

27.
Eighth Crusade
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The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX of France against the city of Tunis in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade, the Ninth Crusade is sometimes also counted as part of the Eighth. The crusade is considered a failure after Louis died shortly after arriving on the shores of Tunisia, despite the failure of the Seventh Crusade, which ended in the capture of King Louis by the Mamluks, the King did not lose interest in crusading. He continued to send aid and military support to the settlements in Outremer from 1254 to 1266. The War of Saint Sabas between Genoa and Venice had drawn in the Crusader States and depleted their resources and manpower, the exhausted settlements were systematically overrun by the methodical campaigns of Baibars. By 1265, he had raided Galilee and destroyed the cathedral of Nazareth, captured Caesarea and Arsuf, in late 1266, Louis informed Pope Clement IV that he intended to go on crusade again. Louis formally took the cross on 24 March 1267 at an assembly of his nobles, the crusade was set to sail from Aigues-Mortes in early summer 1270 in Genoese and Marseillois shipping. Too weak to engage Baibars, they returned to Aragon as well. Louis initial plan was to descend on the coast of Outremer by way of Cyprus, however, a new plan was developed in 1269, wherein the fleet would first descend on Tunis. This change has often attributed to the Kings brother Charles of Anjou. However, the details of Charles preparations suggest that he was not initially aware of the change of plans, the large and well-organized crusading fleet sailed about a month late, on 2 July 1270, and landed on the Tunisian coast on 18 July. The crusaders built a camp on the ruins of Carthage. The North African summer bred pestilence, and an epidemic of dysentery swept through the crusading ranks, Louis Damietta-born son John Tristan died of the disease on 3 August. Soon Louis, too, fell sick, and died, in penitence and his brother Charles arrived just after his death. Because of further diseases the siege of Tunis was abandoned on 30 October by an agreement with the sultan, in this agreement the Christians gained free trade with Tunis, and residence for monks and priests in the city was guaranteed. After hearing of the death of Louis and the evacuation of the crusaders from Tunis, the treaty was quite beneficial to Charles of Anjou, who received one-third of a war indemnity from the Tunisians, and was promised that Hohenstaufen refugees in the sultanate would be expelled. Prince Edward of England arrived with an English fleet the day before the crusaders left Tunis, the English returned to Sicily with the rest of the crusaders, the combined fleet was badly damaged in a storm off Trapani. At the end of April 1271, the English continued to Acre to carry on the Ninth Crusade, bertran dAlamanon, a diplomat in the service of Charles of Anjou, and Ricaut Bonomel, a Templar in the Holy Land, both composed songs around 1265

28.
Ninth Crusade
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The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. Louis IX of Frances failure to capture Tunis in the Eighth Crusade led Henry III of Englands son Edward to sail to Acre in what is known as the Ninth Crusade, the Ninth Crusade saw several impressive victories for Edward over Baibars. Ultimately the Crusaders were forced to withdraw, since Edward had pressing concerns at home and it is arguable that the Crusading spirit was nearly extinct, by this period as well. It also foreshadowed the imminent collapse of the last remaining crusader strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, following the Mamluk victory over the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut by Qutuz and his general Baibars, Qutuz was assassinated, leaving Baibars to claim the sultanate for himself. As Sultan, Baibars proceeded to attack the Christian crusaders at Arsuf, Athlith, Haifa, Safad, Jaffa, Ascalon, as the Crusader fortress cities fell one by one, the Christians sought help from Europe, but assistance was slow in coming. In 1268 Baibars captured Antioch, thereby destroying the last remnant of the Principality of Antioch, securing the Mamluk northern front and threatening the small Crusader County of Tripoli. Louis IX of France, having organized a large crusader army with the intent of attacking Egypt, was diverted instead to Tunis. Prince Edward of England arrived in Tunis too late to contribute to the remainder of the crusade in Tunis. Instead, he continued on his way to the Holy Land to assist Bohemund VI, Prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli, against the Mamluk threat to Tripoli, on May 9,1271, Edward finally arrived at Acre. He brought a small but not insignificant contingent of no more than 1,000 men, Edward arrived at Acre while it was still under siege. His arrival caused Baibars to change his plans and turn away from Acre, the forces under Edwards command were much too small to take on the Mamluks in a straight battle, being unable to even stop the Mamluks from seizing the nearby Teutonic Montfort Castle. They settled for launching a series of raids, later, the arrival of additional forces from England and Hugh III of Cyprus, under the command of Edwards younger brother Edmund, emboldened Edward. He launched a raid with the support of the Templar, Hospitaller. The Crusaders surprised a force of Turcomans, reportedly killing 1,500 of them. Muslim sources list one emir as killed and one as wounded during this raid, on top of that, the Muslim commander of the castle was forced to abandon his command. However, Edward did not take the castle itself, and retreated before Baibars could respond in kind, in December 1271, Edward and his troops saw some action when they repelled an attack by Baibars on the city of Acre. Baibars eventually abandoned his siege of Tripoli, but the reason is not known. Contemporary accounts state that Edwards attacks on Baibars interior lines forced him to abandon the siege, some modern observers reject this interpretation, saying he instead abandoned it to avoid overcommitting himself in one direction due to a lack of intelligence on the Crusaders true capabilities

29.
Savoyard crusade
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The Savoyard crusade was born out of the same planning that led to the Alexandrian Crusade. It was the brainchild of Pope Urban V and was led by Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy and it made small gains against the Ottomans in the vicinity of Constantinople and on Gallipoli. Noting the greater attention paid to Bulgaria than to the Turks, historian Nicolae Iorga argued it was not the thing as a crusade. This was the beginning of the Savoyard crusade, although John II would never fulfill his vow personally, the original members of the Order of the Collar were devoted followers, and often relatives, of Amadeus and all were probably pledged to accompany him on crusade. In the event, all but two who could not go for reasons of health, travelled east, the Order, like the crusade, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The deadline established for the departure of the crusade was 1 March 1365, the deadline was met by nobody, although on 27 June the king of Cyprus left Venice on the Alexandrian Crusade. In January 1365, as reported at Venice, ten galleys were being gathered in Provence for Louiss use, in the spring he invaded, not Turkish Europe, but rather the north of Bulgaria, then ruled by the tsars second son, Sratsimir. He conquered and occupied Vidin, and took Sratsimir captive back to Hungary and his expedition was thus completed in time for him to cooperate with Amadeus in a joint attack on the Turks in the spring of 1366. On 1 April 1364 Urban V made an effort to fund Amadeuss expedition with a series of seven bulls granting him various new sources of income. All confiscated ill-gotten gains from theft, rapine or usury which could not be restituted were to be used for the six years for the crusade. Finally, the church was to pay a tithe of its tithes to the count for the crusade, in early 1366 Amadeus was in Savoy assembling his army. More than half of the army consisted of the vassals of the count of Savoy. His half-brother Ogier and his nephew Humbert, son of his half-brother Humbert, Aymon, younger brother of James of Piedmont, and Amadeuss two illegitimate sons, both named Antoine, participated. A letter from Pope Urban in March 1365 did not convince them otherwise, Urban, the architect of the crusade, negotiated with Genoa and Marseille to procure ships, but the promise of transportation from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV was never fulfilled. Although Amadeus went to Avignon to protest, and apparently received a Papal blessing for his adventure, on 8 February Amadeus began the voyage over land to Venice. Amadeus had reached Rivoli by 15 February, and Pavia, where his brother-in-law Galeazzo II Visconti ruled and he then turned around and visited Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne before returning to Pavia by late May, there to be godfather at the baptism of his nephew Giangaleazzos infant son Giangaleazzo II. Half of the crusading host under Étienne de la Baume went from there to Genoa to embark on the fleet awaiting it and take it to Venice. On 1 June the rest of the army under Amadeus left for Padua, where the ruling family, the departure of the fleet took place around 21 June

30.
Barbary Crusade
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The Barbary Crusade, also called the Mahdia Crusade, was a Franco-Genoese military expedition in 1390 that led to the siege of Mahdia, then a pirate stronghold in Tunisia. Froissarts Chronicles is the account of what was one of the last crusades. During the lulls of the Hundred Years War knights looked for opportunities for glory, as Genoese ambassadors approached the French king Charles VI to subscribe to a crusade, they eagerly supported the plan to fight Muslim pirates from North Africa. These pirates had their base at Mahdia on the Barbary coast. Genoa was ready to supply ships, supplies,12,000 archers and 8,000 foot soldiers, the proposal by the doge Antoniotto Adorno was presented as a crusade. As such it would give prestige to its participants, a moratorium on their debts, immunity from lawsuits, the French force also included some English participants and consisted of 1,500 knights under the leadership of Louis II, Duke of Bourbon. It has been estimated that the force numbered about 5,000 knights. Two priests representing both popes blessed the departing, an armada of about 60 ships left Genoa on July 1,1390 and landed at the end of July near the town of Mahdi where the soldiers disembarked unchallenged. The crusaders put up their camp and invested the city for the next two months. They had failed to bring sufficient siege engines to breach the walls, the crusaders had to build a wall around their camp and fortify it. The Berbers send out a negotiating party asking why the French would attack them, they had only troubled the Genoese, in answer they were told that they were unbelievers who had crucified and put to death the son of God called Jesus Christ. The Berbers laughed saying it was the Jews not they who had done that, in a subsequent encounter with the large relief army the crusaders killed many but eventually had to retreat exhausted and tired. The duration of the not only frustrated them, but their logistical systems started to weaken. When a final assault on the city was repelled they were ready to settle for a treaty, on the opposing side the Berbers realized that they could not overcome the heavier armed invaders. Both sides looked for a way to end the hostilities, the siege was lifted with the conclusion of a treaty negotiated through the Genoese party. The treaty stipulated a ten-year armistice, an agreement by Mahdia of payment of taxes to Genoa for 15 years, thus piracy from the Barbary coast was reduced, and the crusaders withdrew. By mid-October the crusaders had returned to Genoa, losses due to fighting and disease amounted to 274 knights and squires, about 20%. The Berbers had repelled the invaders, and the Genoese could conduct trade with less interference, the French knights had no tangible goals but had participated for action and glory

31.
Battle of Nicopolis
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It is often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis as it was one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Ages, together with the Crusade of Varna in 1443–1444. There were many minor crusades in the 14th century, undertaken by individual kings or knights, most recently there had been a failed crusade against Tunisia in 1390, and there was ongoing warfare in northern Europe along the Baltic coast. In 1393 the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman had lost Nicopolis — his temporary capital — to the Ottomans, while his brother, Ivan Stratsimir, still held Vidin but had been reduced to an Ottoman vassal. In the eyes of the Bulgarian boyars, despots and other independent Balkan rulers, in addition, the frontline between Islam and Christianity had been moving slowly towards the Kingdom of Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary was now the frontier between the two religions in Eastern Europe, and the Hungarians were in danger of being attacked themselves. The Genoese also owned the citadel of Galata, located at the north of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, to which Bayezid had laid siege in 1395. The two decisive factors in the formation of the last crusade were the ongoing Hundred Years War between Richard IIs England and Charles VIs France and the support of Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, in 1389, the war had ground to one of its periodic truces. The support of Burgundy, among the most powerful of the French nobles was also vital, in 1391, Burgundy, trying to decide between sending a crusade to either Prussia or Hungary, sent his envoy Guy de La Trémoille to Venice and Hungary to evaluate the situation. Burgundy originally envisioned a crusade led by himself and the Dukes of Orléans and Lancaster and it was very unlikely that defense against the Turks was considered a particularly important goal of the crusade. Charles VI, having secured a peace with England through the marriage of his daughter, was able to reply that it was his responsibility to protect Christianity, the number of combatants is heavily contested in historical accounts. The oft-given figure of 100,000 crusaders is dismissed by Tuchman, next in importance were the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, who were the standard bearers of Christianity in the Levant since the decline of Constantinople and Cyprus. Venice supplied a fleet for supporting action, while Hungarian envoys encouraged German princes of the Rhineland, Bavaria, Saxony. French heralds had proclaimed the crusade in Poland, Bohemia, Navarre and Spain, the Italian city-states were too much engaged in their customary violent rivalries to participate, and the widely reported and acclaimed English participation never actually occurred. The report of 1,000 English knights comes from contemporary Antonio Fiorentino, a thousand knights would have actually amounted to four to six thousand men and at least twice as many horses, counting foot-soldiers and other retainers. However, there are no records of financial arrangements being made in England to send a force abroad, nor of any royal preparation needed to organize and dispatch such a force. Atiya also thought that the invocation of St. Furthermore, there was no collection of money in England to pay for captives. Nevertheless, obviously inflated figures continue to be repeated, the strength of the Ottoman forces is also estimated at about 20-25,000, but inflated figures continue to be repeated. The Ottoman force also included 1,500 Serbian heavy cavalry knights under the command of Prince Stefan Lazarević, however, Burgundy retained control of the enterprise he was funding by naming 24-year-old John, Count of Nevers, the Dukes eldest son, for nominal command

32.
Crusade of Varna
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The Crusade of Varna was a string of events in 1443–44 between the crusaders and the Ottoman Empire. It culminated in a decisive Ottoman victory at the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444, after the war ended in 1430, the Ottomans returned to their earlier policy of controlling all lands south of the Danube. In 1432, Sultan Murad II began raiding into Transylvania, after King Sigismund died in 1437, the attacks intensified, with the Ottomans occupying Borač in 1438 and Zvornik and Srebrenica in 1439. At the end of 1439, Smederevo capitulated and Murad succeeded in making Serbia an Ottoman province, Đurađ Branković, Despot of Serbia, fled to his estates in Hungary. In 1440, Murad besieged Hungarys main border fortress, Belgrade, after failing to take the fortress, he was forced to return to Anatolia to stop attacks by the Karamanids. Meanwhile, Sigismunds successor Albert had died in October 1439, shortly after signing a law to restore the ancient laws, the law restricted the royal authority by requiring the participation of landed nobility in political decisions. Four months after Alberts death, his son, Ladislaus, was born while Hungary was in the midst of a civil war over the next monarch. On 17 July 1440 Vladislaus, king of Poland, was crowned despite continuing disputes, John Hunyadi aided Vladislauss cause by pacifying the eastern counties, gaining him the position of Nádor of Transylvania and the corresponding responsibility of protecting Hungarys southern border. By the end of 1442, Vladislaus had secured his status in Hungary, the impetus required to turn the plans into action was provided by Hunyadi between 1441–42. In 1441, he defeated a raid led by Ishak Pasha of Smederevo and he nearly annihilated Mezid Beys army in Transylvania on 22 March 1442, and in September he defeated the revenge attack of Şihabeddin Pasha, governor-general of Rumelia. Branković, hoping to liberate Serbia, also lent his support after Novo Brdo, on 1 January 1443 Pope Eugene IV published a crusading bull. The crusaders, led by Vladislaus, Hunyadi, and Branković and they correctly expected that Murad would not be able to quickly mobilize his army, which consisted mainly of fief-holding cavalrymen who needed to collect the harvest to pay taxes. Hunyadis experience of campaigns from 1441–42 added to the Hungarians advantage. They also had better armor, often rendering the Ottoman weapons useless, Murad could not rely on the loyalty of his troops from Rumelia, and had difficulties countering Hungarian tactics. In the Battle of Nish the crusaders were victorious and forced Kasim Pasha of Rumelia, however, the two burned all the villages in their path in an attempt to wear down the crusaders with a scorched earth tactic. When they arrived in Sofia, they advised the Sultan to burn the city and retreat to the mountain passes beyond, shortly after, bitter cold set in, and the next encounter, fought at Zlatitsa Pass on 12 December 1443, was fought in the snow. Until the Battle of Zlatitsa the crusaders did not meet major Ottoman army, only at Zlatica they met strong and well positioned defence forces of the Ottoman army. Four days after this battle Christian coalition reached Prokuplje, Đurađ Branković proposed to Władysław III of Poland and John Hunyadi to stay in Serbian fortified towns during the winter and continue their campaign against Ottomans in Spring 1444

33.
Northern Crusades
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The crusades took place mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries and resulted in the conversion and baptism of indigenous peoples. Most notable campaigns were Livonian and Prussian crusades, some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th-century romantic nationalist historians. And 1293, Livonians, Latgallians, Selonians, and Estonians, Semigallians and Curonians, the campaigns started with the 1147 Wendish Crusade against the Polabian Slavs of what is now northern and eastern Germany. The crusade occurred parallel to the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, the Swedish crusades were campaigns by Sweden against Finns, Tavastians, and Karelians during period from 1150 to 1293. The Danes are known to have made two crusades to Finland in 1191 and in 1202, the latter one was led by the Bishop of Lund Anders Sunesen with his brother. The difference in creeds was one of the reasons they had not yet been effectively converted. During a period of more than 150 years leading up to the arrival of German crusaders in the region, Estonia was attacked thirteen times by Russian principalities, Estonians for their part made raids upon Denmark and Sweden. There were peaceful attempts by some Catholics to convert the Estonians, starting with missions dispatched by Adalbert, however, these peaceful efforts seem to have had only limited success. Although the crusaders won their first battle, Bishop Berthold was mortally wounded, in 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen to Christianise the Baltic countries. By the time Albert died 30 years later, the conquest and formal Christianisation of present-day Estonia, although he landed in the mouth of the Daugava in 1200 with only 23 ships and 500 soldiers, the bishops efforts ensured that a constant flow of recruits followed. The first crusaders usually arrived to fight during the spring and returned to their homes in the autumn, to ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. The founding by Bishop Albert of the market at Riga in 1201 attracted citizens from the Empire, at Alberts request, Pope Innocent III dedicated the Baltic countries to the Virgin Mary to popularize recruitment to his army and the name Marys Land has survived up to modern times. This is noticeable in one of the given to Livonia at the time. In 1206, the crusaders subdued the Livonian stronghold in Turaida on the bank of Gauja River. In order to control over the left bank of Gauja. By 1211, the Livonian province of Metsepole and the mixed Livonian-Latgallian inhabited county of Idumea was converted to the Roman Catholic faith, the last battle against the Livonians was the siege of Satezele hillfort near to Sigulda in 1212. The Livonians, who had been paying tribute to the East Slavic Principality of Polotsk, had at first considered the Germans as useful allies, the first prominent Livonian to be christened was their leader Caupo of Turaida. As the German grip tightened, the Livonians rebelled against the crusaders and the christened chief, Caupo of Turaida remained an ally of the crusaders until his death in the Battle of St. Matthews Day in 1217

34.
Wendish Crusade
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By the early 12th century, the German archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg sought the conversion to Christianity of neighboring pagan West Slavs through peaceful means. During the preparation of the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, however, the Slavic leader Niklot preemptively invaded Wagria in June 1147, leading to the march of the crusaders later that summer. They achieved an ostensible forced baptism of Slavs at Dobin but were repulsed from Demmin, another crusading army marched on the already Christian city of Szczecin, whereupon the crusaders dispersed upon arrival. The Ottonian dynasty supported eastward expansion of the Holy Roman Empire towards Wendish lands during the 10th century, the campaigns of King Henry the Fowler and Emperor Otto the Great led to the introduction of burgwards to protect German conquests in the lands of the Sorbs. Ottos lieutenants, Margraves Gero and Hermann Billung, advanced eastward and northward respectively to claim tribute from conquered Slavs, bishoprics were established at Meissen, Brandenburg, Havelberg, and Oldenburg to administer the territory. A great Slavic rebellion in 983 reversed the initial German gains, while the burgwards allowed the Saxons to retain control of Meissen, they lost Brandenburg and Havelberg. The Elbe River thus became the limit of German-Roman control. Lacking support from the Salian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire, christians, especially Saxons from Holstein, and pagans raided each other across the Limes Saxonicus, usually for tribute. From 1140-43 Holsatian nobles advanced into Wagria to permanently settle in the lands of the pagan Wagri, count Adolf II of Holstein and Henry of Badewide took control of Polabian settlements which would later become Lübeck and Ratzeburg, Vicelin was subsequently installed as bishop at Oldenburg. Adolf sought peace with the chief of the Obodrite confederacy, Niklot, the fall of Edessa in 1144 shocked Christendom, causing Pope Eugenius III and St. Bernard of Clairvaux to preach a Second Crusade to reinforce Outremer. While many south Germans volunteered to crusade in the Middle East and they told Bernard of their desire to campaign against the Slavs at a Reichstag meeting in Frankfurt on 13 March 1147. Approving of the Saxons plan, pope Eugenius issued a bull known as the Divina dispensatione on 13 April. Those who volunteered to crusade against the Slavic pagans were primarily Danes, Saxons, the German monarchy took no part in the crusade, which was led by Saxon families such as the Ascanians, Wettin, and Schauenburgers. Papal legate Anselm of Havelberg was placed in overall command, after expelling the Obodrites from his territory, Adolf signed a peace treaty with Niklot. The remaining Christian crusaders targeted the Obodrite fort Dobin and the Liutizian fort Demmin, the forces attacking Dobin included those of the Danes Canute V and Sweyn III, Archbishop Adalbert II of Bremen, and Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony. Avoiding pitched battles, Niklot ably defended the marshland of Dobin, one army of Danes was defeated by Slavs from Dobin, while another had to defend the Danish fleet from Niklots allies, the Rani of Rügen. Henry and Adalbert maintained the siege of Dobin after the retreat of the Danes, when some crusaders advocated ravaging the countryside, others objected by asking, Is not the land we are devastating our land, and the people we are fighting our people. The Saxon army under Henry the Lion withdrew after Niklot agreed to have Dobins garrison undergo baptism, the Saxon army directed against Demmin was led by several bishops, including those of Mainz, Halberstadt, Münster, Merseburg, Brandenburg, Olmütz, and Bishop Anselm of Havelberg

35.
Second Swedish Crusade
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The Second Swedish Crusade was a Swedish military expedition to areas in present-day Finland by Birger Jarl in the 13th century. As a result of the crusade, the Swedish kingdom began to influence in western Finland. According to Erics Chronicle from ca, 1320-1340, the crusade took place between Birger Jarl getting elevated to the position of jarl in 1248 and the death of King Eric XI of Sweden in 1250. The so-called Detmar Chronicle of Lübeck from around 1340 confirms the expedition with a note that Birger Jarl submitted Finland under Swedish rule. From other sources, Birger Jarl is known to have been absent from Sweden in winter 1249-50, later on, the conquest of Finland was redated to the 1150s by the official Swedish legends, crediting the national saint King Eric for it. The point of time when the took place has been somewhat disputed. Attempts have been made to date the attack either to 1239 or to 1256, neither date has received wide acceptance. Swedens sudden determination to take over Finland has not been explained, Finland became an integrated part of Sweden since there was a lot of exchange between the regions, especially via the Åland archipelago. During those days, it was easier to travel by sea than by land, Birger Jarl seems to have headed for Finland just after having both crushed the Folkung uprising of 1247-1248 and finalized the Treaty of Lödöse with Norway earlier in the summer of 1249. Swedens previous attempts to gain a foothold in Estonia in 1220 may have urged Sweden to settle for what was still available, Erics Chronicle also points out the threat from Russians, mentioning that the Russian king had now lost the conquered land. All details of the crusade are from Erics Chronicle, which is largely propagandist in nature, written amidst internal unrest, the chronicle has caused a long controversy on the actual target of the expedition, since it presents Tavastians as the Swedish opponents. Based on this, it is assumed that the target of the crusade was also Tavastia. Tavastians are known to have rebelled against the church in the 1230s, according to the chronicle, the expedition was prepared in Sweden and then conducted over sea to a land on the coast, where the enemy was waiting. Since Tavastia was inland, this contradiction was later explained so that there was a Tavastian port somewhere on the coast that was the target of the attack. Chronicle also mentions that a castle called taffwesta borg was established after the war, there have been lot of attempts to identify the castle with either Häme Castle or Hakoinen Castle in central Tavastia, but neither has been indisputably dated to such an early period. Finlands bishop Thomas, probably a Dominican monk, had resigned already in 1245, the seat being vacant, the diocese had probably been under the direct command of the papal legate William of Modena whose last orders to Finnish priests were given in June,1248. Swedish Bero was eventually appointed as the new bishop in 1248/9, the so-called Palmsköld booklet from 1448 noted that it was Bero who gave Finns tax to the Swedish king. Bero came directly from the Swedish court like his two successors and it seems that Swedish bishops also held all secular power in Finland until the 1280s when the position of the Duke of Finland was established

36.
Livonian Crusade
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The lands on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea were the last corners of Europe to be Christianized. After the success of the crusade, the German- and Danish-occupied territory was divided into six feudal principalities by William of Modena, Christianity had come to Latvia with the settlement of Grobiņa by Swedes in the 7th century and the Danes in the 11th. By the time German traders began to arrive in the half of the 12th century to trade along the ancient trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. Saint Meinhard of Segeberg arrived in Ikšķile in 1184 with the mission of converting the pagan Livonians, in those days the riverside town was the center of the upcoming missionary activities in the Livonian area. The first prominent Livonian to be converted was their leader Caupo of Turaida, Pope Celestine III had called for a crusade against pagans in Northern Europe in 1193. When peaceful means of conversion failed to produce results, the impatient Meinhard plotted to convert Livonians forcibly and he died in 1196, having failed in his mission. His appointed replacement, bishop Berthold of Hanover, a Cistercian abbot of Loccum arrived with a contingent of crusaders in 1198. Shortly afterward, while riding ahead of his troops in battle, Berthold was surrounded and killed, to avenge Bertholds defeat, Pope Innocent III issued a bull declaring a crusade against the Livonians. Albrecht von Buxthoeven, consecrated as bishop in 1199, arrived the year with a large force. In 1202 he formed the Livonian Brothers of the Sword to aid in the conversion of the pagans to Christianity and, more importantly, to protect German trade, as the German grip tightened, the Livonians and their christened chief rebelled against the crusaders. Caupos forces were defeated at Turaida in 1206, and the Livonians were declared to be converted, Caupo subsequently remained an ally of the crusaders until his death in the Battle of St. Matthews Day in 1217. By 1208 the important Daugava trading posts of Salaspils, Koknese, in 1209 Albert, leading the forces of the Order, captured the capital of the Latgalian Principality of Jersika, and took the wife of the ruler Visvaldis captive. Visvaldis was forced to submit his kingdom to Albert as a grant to the Archbishopric of Riga, and received back a portion of it as a fief. Tālava, weakened in wars with Estonians and Russians, became a state of the Archbishopric of Riga in 1214. With the help of the newly converted local tribes of Livs and Latgalians, the Estonian tribes fiercely resisted the attacks from Riga and occasionally sacked territories controlled by the crusaders. Hill forts, which were the key centers of Estonian counties, were besieged, captured, a truce between the war-weary sides was established for three years. It proved generally more favourable to the Germans, who consolidated their political position and they were led by Lembitu of Lehola, the elder of Sackalia, who by 1211 had come to the attention of German chroniclers as the central figure of the Estonian resistance. The Livonian leader Caupo was killed in the Battle of St. Matthews Day near Viljandi on September 21,1217, but Lembitu was also killed, the Christian kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden were also eager for expansion on the eastern shores of the Baltic

37.
Prussian Crusade
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The Prussian Crusade was a series of 13th-century campaigns of Roman Catholic crusaders, primarily led by the Teutonic Knights, to Christianize the pagan Old Prussians. Invited after earlier unsuccessful expeditions against the Prussians by Polish princes, by the end of the century, having quelled several Prussian Uprisings, the Knights had established control over Prussia and administered the Prussians through their monastic state. Wulfstan of Hedeby, an agent of Alfred of Wessex, recorded the seafaring and cattle-herding Prussians as a strong, Mieszko I of the Polans tried to extend his realm from land he had just conquered around the mouth of the Oder as far as Prussia. Boleslaw I of Poland, son of Mieszko I, greatly expanded his conquests and used Adalbert of Prague for his aim of conquering the Prussians in 997. After some initial success among the Prussians, Adalberts successor, Bruno of Querfurt, was killed in 1009. Boleslaw I continued his conquests of surrounding lands and in 1015 he devastated large parts of Prussia, the Poles waged war with the neighboring Prussians, Sudovians, and Wends over the following two centuries. While the Poles sought the conversion of the Prussians and control of their land, many Prussians nominally accepted baptism only to revert to pagan beliefs after hostilities ended. Henry of Sandomierz was killed fighting the Prussians in 1166, boleslaw IV and Casimir II each led large armies into Prussia, while Boleslaws forces were defeated in guerilla warfare, Casimir imposed peace until his death in 1194. King Valdemar II of Denmark supported Danish expeditions against Samland until his capture by Henry, Count of Schwerin, in 1223. In 1206, the Cistercian bishop Christian of Oliva, with the support of the King of Denmark and Polish dukes, inspired, he travelled to Rome to prepare for a larger mission. When he returned to Chełmno in 1215, however, Christian found the Prussians hostile, the pagan Prussians invaded Chełmno Land, Masovia, and Pomerellia, besieged Chełmno and Lubawa, and forced converts to return to the old beliefs. Because of the intensity of attacks, Pope Honorius III sent a papal bull to Christian in March 1217 allowing him to begin preaching a crusade against the militant Prussians. The following year the pagans attacked Chełmno Land and Masovia again, plundering 300 cathedrals, Duke Conrad of Masovia succeeded in expelling the Prussians by paying a huge tribute, which only encouraged the Prussians, however. Honorius III called for a crusade under the leadership of Christian of Oliva and chose as papal legate the Archbishop of Gniezno, numerous Polish nobles began endowing Christians Bishopric of Prussia with estates and castles in Chełmno Land during the meantime. The lords agreed that the focus was to rebuild the defenses of Chełmno Land, especially Chełmno itself. By 1223, however, most of the crusaders had left the region, the Balts even reached Gdańsk in Pomerellia. In 1225 or 1228, fourteen north German knights were recruited by Conrad, First granted the estate of Cedlitz in Kuyavia until the completion of a castle at Dobrzyń, the group became known as the Order of Dobrzyń. The Knights of Dobrzyń initially had success driving the Prussians from Chełmno Land, the survivors were granted asylum in Pomerania by Duke Swantopelk II

38.
People's Crusade
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The Peoples Crusade was the prelude to the First Crusade and lasted roughly six months from April to October 1096. It is also known as the Peasants Crusade, Paupers Crusade or the Popular Crusade as it was not part of the official Catholic Church-organised expeditions that came later. Led primarily by Peter the Hermit with forces of Walter Sans Avoir, historically, there has been much debate over whether Peter was the real initiator of the Crusade as opposed to Pope Urban II. The expeditions independence has been used by historians such as Hagenmeyer to prove this. Pope Urban II planned the departure of the crusade for 15 August 1096, before this, a number of unexpected bands of peasants and low-ranking knights organized and set off for Jerusalem on their own. The peasant population had been afflicted by drought, famine, and disease for years before 1096. An outbreak of ergotism had also occurred just before the Council of Clermont, millenarianism, the belief that the end of the world was imminent, popular in the early 11th century, experienced a resurgence in popularity. The list of known Crusaders who fought with Peter can be found in Riley-Smith, et al, a charismatic monk and powerful orator named Peter the Hermit of Amiens was the spiritual leader of the movement. He was known for riding a donkey and dressing in simple clothing and he had vigorously preached the crusade throughout northern France and Flanders. He claimed to have appointed to preach by Christ himself. While the majority were unskilled in fighting, there were some well-trained minor knights leading them, such as Walter Sans-Avoir, a list of known members of Peters army can be found in Riley-Smith, et al, A Database of Crusaders to the Holy Land. Eleven Jews were murdered in Speyer, where the Bishop saved the rest of the Jews for a large payment, in Mainz, over one thousand Jews were murdered, as well as more in Trier, Metz, Cologne, and elsewhere. Others were subjected to forced baptism and conversion, the preacher Folkmar and Count Emicho of Flonheim were the main inciters and leaders of the massacre. The major chroniclers of the 1096 killings are Solomon bar Simson, estimates of the number of Jewish men, women, and children murdered or driven to suicide by crusaders vary, ranging from 2,000 to 12,000. Julius Aronius put the number killed at 4,000, regarding other figures as too high, norman Cohn puts the number at between 4,000 and 8,000 from May to June 1096. Gedaliah ibn Yahya estimated that some 5,000 Jews were killed from April to June 1096. Edward H. Flannerys estimate is that 10,000 were murdered over the longer January-to-July period, probably one-fourth to one-third of the Jewish population of Germany, the Church opposed these attacks, and local clergy often came to the defense of Jews in their community. The pogroms were decried by many Christians of the day, some even pointed to these crimes as the reason God forsook their fellow crusaders at Nicaea and Civetot

39.
Children's Crusade
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The Childrens Crusade is the name given to a Crusade by European Christians to expel Muslims from the Holy Land said to have taken place in 1212. Early versions of events, of which there are many variations told over the centuries, are largely apocryphal, the variants of the long-standing story of the Childrens Crusade have similar themes. A boy began preaching in either France or Germany claiming that he had visited by Jesus. Through a series of portents and miracles he gained a following, including up to 30,000 children. He led his followers south towards the Mediterranean Sea, in the belief that the sea would part on their arrival, allowing him and his followers to march to Jerusalem, some may have failed to reach the sea, dying or giving up from starvation and exhaustion. They were betrayed by some of the adults in their group, according to more recent researchers there seem to have actually been two movements of people in 1212 in Germany and France. The similarities of the two allowed later chroniclers to combine and embellish the tales, in the first movement, Nicholas, an eloquent shepherd from the Rhineland in Germany, tried to lead a group across the Alps and into Italy in the early spring of 1212. Nicholas said that the sea would dry up before them and allow his followers to cross into the Holy Land, rather than intending to fight the Saracens, he said that the Muslim kingdoms would be defeated when their citizens converted to Christianity. His disciples went off to preach the call for the Crusade across the German lands, splitting into two groups, the crowds took different roads through Switzerland. Two out of three people on the journey died, while many others returned to their homes. About 7,000 arrived in Genoa in late August and they immediately marched to the harbor, expecting the sea to divide before them, when it did not many became bitterly disappointed. A few accused Nicholas of betraying them, while others settled down to wait for God to change his mind, the Genoese authorities were impressed by the little band, and they offered citizenship to those who wished to settle in their city. Most of the would-be Crusaders took up this opportunity, Nicholas refused to say he was defeated and traveled to Pisa, his movement continuing to break up along the way. He and a few loyal followers continued to the Papal States, the remaining ones departed for Germany after the Pontiff exhorted them to be good and to return home to their families. Nicholas did not survive the second attempt across the Alps, back home his father was arrested and hanged under pressure from families whose relatives had perished while following the child. Some of the most dedicated members of this Crusade were later reported to have wandered to Ancona and Brindisi, none are known to have reached the Holy Land. The second movement was led by a twelve-year-old French shepherd boy named Stephan of Cloyes, large gangs of youth around his age were drawn to him, most of whom claimed to possess special gifts of God and thought themselves miracle workers. Attracting a following of over 30,000 adults and children, he went to Saint-Denis, on the orders of Philip II, advised by the University of Paris, the people were implored to return home

40.
Shepherds' Crusade (1251)
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The Shepherds Crusade of 1251 was a popular movement in northern France aimed at rescuing King Louis IX during the Seventh Crusade. In 1249, Saint Louis IX of France was away on crusade leaving his mother, Blanche of Castile, Louis was defeated and captured in Egypt. Louis sent his brothers to France to get relief, where despite the efforts of Blanche of Castile, one of the outpourings of support took the form of a peasant movement in northern France, led by a man known only as the Master of Hungary. He was apparently a very old Hungarian monk living in France, the Master claimed to have been visited by the Virgin Mary, who instructed him to lead the shepherds of France to the Holy Land to rescue Louis. His followers, said to number 60,000, were mostly peasants, men, women, and children, from Brabant, Hainaut, Flanders. They followed him to Paris in May, where the Master met with Blanche of Castile, matthew Paris thought he was an impostor, and that he was actually one of the leaders of the Childrens Crusade from earlier in the century. The crowd of shepherds split up leaving the city. Some of them went to Rouen, where they expelled the archbishop, the others under the Master arrived in Orléans on June 11. Here they were denounced by the bishop, whom they attacked, along with other clerics. They fought with the university students in the city as well, moving on to Amiens, and then Bourges, they also began to attack Jews. Blanche responded by ordering the crowds to be rounded up and excommunicated, after being dispersed, some of the participants traveled to Aquitaine and England, where they were forbidden to preach. Others took a true crusade vow and may have gone on crusade. Margaret Wade Labarge, Saint Louis, The Life of Louis IX of France, ernest Lavisse, Histoire de France, Tome Troisième, II. Peter Jackson, The Seventh Crusade, 1244-1254, gary Dickson, Religious enthusiasm in the medieval West. Malcolm Barber, The crusades of the shepherds in 1251, Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the society for French history,1982

Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and rec

2.
Map of the Eastern Mediterranean in 1135, showing crusader-held and neighbouring territories

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Fifteenth-century illustrated French translation of Boccaccio 's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, showing Seljuk emperor Alp Arslan ritually humiliating Romanos IV in 1071 after Manzikert; Alp Arslan allowed Romanos to return to Constantinople, where he was killed by the Byzantines.

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Illumination from the Livre des Passages d'Outre-mer (c. 1490) of Urban II at the Council of Clermont (from the Bibliothèque Nationale)

First Crusade
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The First Crusade was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to capture the Holy Land, called by Pope Urban II in 1095. An additional goal became the principal objective—the Christian reconquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. During the crusades, nobility, knights, peasants and serfs from many regions of Western Europe

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The Capture of Jerusalem marked the First Crusade's success

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Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont. Illumination from the Livre des Passages d'Outre-mer, of c 1490 (Bibliothèque Nationale)

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A map of the routes of the major leaders of the crusade, in French

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An illustration showing the defeat of the People's Crusade

Gerhard Munthe (painter)
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Gerhard Peter Frantz Munthe was a Norwegian painter and illustrator. Munthe was born in Elverum to physician Christopher Pavels Munthe and his wife Christine Margrethe Pavels Aabel and he was a brother of historian Hartvig Andreas Munthe, writer Margrethe Munthe and military officer Carl Oscar Munthe. He was also a nephew of historian and cartograp

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Finn Arnesson set spydodden for brystet på Tore Hund (Finn Arnesson set spear point on the chest of Tore Hund)

Iberian Peninsula
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The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnɪnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe. The peninsula is divided between Portugal and Spain, comprising most of their territory. With an area of approximately 582,000 km2, it is the second largest European peninsula, at that time, the name did not describe a sin

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Satellite image of the Iberian Peninsula.

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Iberian Peninsula and southern France, satellite photo on a cloudless day in March 2014

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An 18th-century map of the peninsula depicting various topographical features of the land, as published in Robert Wilkinson's General Atlas, circa 1794.

Balearic Islands
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The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The four largest islands are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, there are many minor islands and islets close to the larger islands, including Cabrera, Dragonera and SEspalmador. The islands have a Mediterranean c

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Ramon Llull.

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Flag

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Catalan Atlas, by the sefardi Cresques Abraham.

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King James I of Aragon (furthest right) during his conquest of Mallorca in 1229.

Palestine (region)
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Palestine is a geographic region in Western Asia between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is sometimes considered to include adjoining territories, the name was used by Ancient Greek writers, and was later used for the Roman province Syria Palaestina, the Byzantine Palaestina Prima, and the Islamic provincial district of Jund Filastin

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A 1759 map entitled The Holy Land, or Palestine, showing not only the Ancient Kingdoms of Judah and Israel in which the 12 Tribes have been distinguished, but also their placement in different periods as indicated in the Holy Scriptures by Tobias Conrad Lotter, Geographer. Augsburg, Germany

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Depiction of Biblical Palestine in c. 1020 BCE according to George Adam Smith 's 1915 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land. Smith's book was used as a reference by Lloyd George during the negotiations for the British Mandate for Palestine.

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Herod's Temple in Jerusalem functioned as the spiritual center of the various sects of Second Temple Judaism until it was destroyed in 70 CE. This picture shows the temple as imagined in 1966 in the Holyland Model of Jerusalem.

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The Dome of the Rock, the world's first great work of Islamic architecture, constructed in 691.

Crusaders
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and rec

2.
Map of the Eastern Mediterranean in 1135, showing crusader-held and neighbouring territories

3.
Fifteenth-century illustrated French translation of Boccaccio 's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, showing Seljuk emperor Alp Arslan ritually humiliating Romanos IV in 1071 after Manzikert; Alp Arslan allowed Romanos to return to Constantinople, where he was killed by the Byzantines.

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Illumination from the Livre des Passages d'Outre-mer (c. 1490) of Urban II at the Council of Clermont (from the Bibliothèque Nationale)

Kingdom of Jerusalem
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The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was a crusader state established in the Southern Levant by Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, the sometimes so-called First Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted from 1099 t

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Flag

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After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Republic of Venice
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It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice. It was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages, the Venetian city state was founded as a safe haven for people escaping persecution in mainland Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. In its early years, it prospered on the salt tra

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Sack of Constantinople

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Flag

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Voyage of Marco Polo into the Far East during the Pax Mongolica

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The Piraeus Lion in Venice - a spoil from Constantinople

Hereditary Kingdom of Norway
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The Kingdom of Norway as a unified realm was initiated by King Harald I Fairhair in the 9th century. His efforts in unifying the petty kingdoms of Norway, resulted in the first known Norwegian central government, the country however fragmented soon, and was collected into one entity in the first half of the 11th century. Norway has been a monarchy

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King Frederick III

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The Norwegian royal standard, introduced in 1905 on the accession of Haakon VII.

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The Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814.

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King Haakon VII early during his reign.

Saracens
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Saracen was a term widely used among Christian writers in Europe during the Middle Ages. The terms meaning evolved during its history, in Europe during the Early Medieval era, the term came to be associated with Arab tribes as well. By the 12th century, Saracen had become synonymous with Muslim in Medieval Latin literature, such expansion in the me

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A 12th-century Byzantine manuscript illumination depicting Byzantine Greeks executing Cretan Saracens in the 9th century. From the Madrid Skylitzes by John Skylitzes.

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A depiction of Saracens in a 15th-century woodcut

Almoravid dynasty
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The Almoravid dynasty was a Berber imperial dynasty of Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that stretched over the western Maghreb, founded by Abdallah ibn Yasin, the Almoravid capital was Marrakesh, a city they founded in 1062. The dynasty originated among the Lamtuna and the Gudala, nomadic Berber tribes of the Sahara and this e

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Almoravid gold dinar coin from Seville, Spain, 1116. (British Museum). The Almoravid gold dinar would set the standard of the Iberian maravedi.

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The Almoravid empire at its greatest extent, c. 1120.

Fatimid Caliphate
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The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa, from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The dynasty ruled across the Mediterranean coast of Africa and ultimately made Egypt the centre of the caliphate, at its height the caliphate included in addition to Egypt varying are

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Fatimid green banner.

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The Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo, of Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the sixth caliph, as renovated by Dawoodi Bohra

Sigurd I of Norway
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Sigurd I Magnusson, also known as Sigurd the Crusader, was King of Norway from 1103 to 1130. His rule, together with his half-brother Øystein, has been regarded by historians as an age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway. He is otherwise famous for leading the Norwegian Crusade, earning the eponym the Crusader, Sigurd was one of the three sons to Ki

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King Sigurd rides into Constantinople with his remnant army.

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Coin thought to represent the co-rule of Eystein and Sigurd, and thus dated to 1115–23.

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Sigurd's skull, which was saved from the decaying St. Hallvards church by a student in the 17th century. Since 1957 it has been interred in the wall of the royal mausoleum at Akershus Castle

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Ragnvald Eysteinsson "the Wise" (9th century)

Baldwin I of Jerusalem
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Baldwin I of Jerusalem, formerly Baldwin I of Edessa, born Baldwin of Boulogne,1058. –2 April 1118, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade and he was the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, who was the first ruler of the crusader state of Jerusalem, although Godfrey refused the title of king which Baldwin accepted. Baldwin was a son of Eustace II,

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Baldwin I

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Baldwin of Boulogne entering Edessa in February 1098. He is shown being welcomed by the Armenian clergy, who welcomed the end of tutelage to Constantinople.

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Baldwin of Boulogne receiving the hommage of the Armenians in Edessa.

Ordelafo Faliero
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Ordelafo Faliero de Doni was the 34th Doge of Venice. He was the son of the 32nd doge, Vitale Faliero de Doni and his first name, which is otherwise unknown in Venetian history, is thought to have been derived from a backwards spelling of the Venetian name Faledro. During his reign as Doge, Faliero went to war against the Hungarians, ruled at the t

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Coat-of-arms of Ordelafo Faliero.

Galley
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A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by rowing. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used in favorable winds, but human strength was always the primary method of propulsion. This allowed galleys to navigate independently of winds and currents, Gal

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A model of a Maltese design typical of the 16th century, the last great era of the war galley

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The English-built Charles Galley, a "galley frigate" built in the 1670s. It was not a "true" galley, but the term still became part of its name due to its oars.

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Watercolor of United States ships at the battle of Valcour Island, depicting several " row galleys "; similar function, but based on very different designs than Mediterranean galleys.

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Assyrian warship, a bireme with pointed bow. 700 BC

Crusade of 1101
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The Crusade of 1101 was a minor crusade of three separate movements, organized in 1100 and 1101 in the successful aftermath of the First Crusade. It is also called the Crusade of the Faint-Hearted due to the number of participants who joined this crusade after having turned back from the First Crusade. Calls for reinforcements from the newly establ

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Lombard-Tuscan man-at-arms from c. 1100, Vita Mathildis.

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A map of western Anatolia, showing the routes taken by Christian armies

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Anselm IV

Venetian Crusade
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The Venetian Crusade of 1122–24 was an expedition to the Holy Land launched by the Republic of Venice that succeeded in capturing Tyre. It was an important victory at the start of a period when the Kingdom of Jerusalem would expand to its greatest extent under King Baldwin II, the Venetians gained valuable trading concessions in Tyre. Baldwin de Bu

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Outremer around 1100

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The siege of Tyre by the Crusaders and the Venetian fleet

Second Crusade
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The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe as a Catholic holy war against Islam. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi, the county had been founded during the First Crusade by King Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098. While it was the first Crusader

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Edessa, seen here on the right of this map (c. 1140), was recaptured by the Turks. This was the primary cause of the Second Crusade.

Third Crusade
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The Third Crusade, also known as The Kings Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin. After the failure of the Second Crusade, the Zengid dynasty controlled a unified Syria, the Egyptian and Syrian forces were ultimately unified under Saladin, who employed them to reduce the Christian states and recapture J

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The Siege of Acre was the first major confrontation of the Third Crusade

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Saladin's troops, French manuscript, 1337

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"Death of Frederick of Germany" by Gustav Dore

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Philip II depicted arriving in Palestine

Crusade of 1197
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Thus the military campaign is also known as the Emperors Crusade. While his forces were already on their way to the Holy Land, the nobles remaining on the campaign captured the Levant coast between Tyre and Tripoli before returning to Germany. The Crusade ended abruptly after the fall of Sidon and Beirut in 1198, on 2 October 1187 the Ayyubid sulta

Fourth Crusade
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The Fourth Crusade was a Western European armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III, originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the intention of the crusaders was then to continue to the Holy Land w

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Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204

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The Crusader attack on Constantinople, from a Venetian manuscript of Geoffreoy de Villehardouin's history, ca. 1330

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Capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204

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The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople (Eugène Delacroix, 1840). The most infamous action of the Fourth Crusade was the sack of the Orthodox Christian city of Constantinople

Fifth Crusade
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The Fifth Crusade was an attempt by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt. Later in 1218, a German army led by Oliver of Cologne, in order to attack Damietta in Egypt, they allied in Anatolia with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm which attacked the Ayyubids in Syria

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Frisian crusaders confront the Tower of Damietta, Egypt.

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King Andrew II of Hungary

Sixth Crusade
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The Sixth Crusade started in 1228 as an attempt to regain Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade, however, Frederick again promised to go on a crusade after his coronation as emperor in 1220 by Pope Honorius III. In 1225 Frederick married Yolande of Jerusalem, daughter of John of Brienne, Frederick now had a claim to

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Frederick II (left) meets al-Kamil (right).

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Kingdom of Jerusalem after treaty from 1229

Seventh Crusade
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The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. In 1244, the Khwarezmians, recently displaced by the advance of the Mongols and this time, despite calls from the Pope, there was no popular enthusiasm for a new crusade. There were also many conflicts within Europe that kept its leaders from embarking on the Crusade, Po

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Louis IX during the Seventh Crusade.

Eighth Crusade
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The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX of France against the city of Tunis in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade, the Ninth Crusade is sometimes also counted as part of the Eighth. The crusade is considered a failure after Louis

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Death of Louis IX during the siege of Tunis

Ninth Crusade
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The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. Louis IX of Frances failure to capture Tunis in the Eighth Crusade led Henry III of Englands son Edward to sail to Acre in what is known as the Ninth Crusade, the Ninth Crusade saw several impressive

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Operations during the Ninth Crusade.

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Edward I kills his attempted assassin.

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Romantic portrayal of the "Last Crusader". Increasing Muslim victories and Christian defeats led to the end of the Crusades.

Savoyard crusade
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The Savoyard crusade was born out of the same planning that led to the Alexandrian Crusade. It was the brainchild of Pope Urban V and was led by Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy and it made small gains against the Ottomans in the vicinity of Constantinople and on Gallipoli. Noting the greater attention paid to Bulgaria than to the Turks, historian Nicola

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Statue of Amadeus slaying a Turk by Pelagio Palagi, which stands in Turin

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Fresco on the walls of a hall in the episcopal palace at Colle Val d'Elsa, depicting the departure of barons on a crusade, probably that of 1366, since the knight on the left is Amadeus VI. “The fresco is usually ascribed to the Sienese school and dated in the last half of the fourteenth century.”

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A fresco in the Florentine style by Andrea di Bonaiuto in the Spanish Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella shows Amadeus VI (fourth from left in the back row) as a crusader

Barbary Crusade
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The Barbary Crusade, also called the Mahdia Crusade, was a Franco-Genoese military expedition in 1390 that led to the siege of Mahdia, then a pirate stronghold in Tunisia. Froissarts Chronicles is the account of what was one of the last crusades. During the lulls of the Hundred Years War knights looked for opportunities for glory, as Genoese ambass

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The French army disembarking in Africa, led by the duke of Bourbon, holding a shield bearing the royal arms of France

Battle of Nicopolis
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It is often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis as it was one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Ages, together with the Crusade of Varna in 1443–1444. There were many minor crusades in the 14th century, undertaken by individual kings or knights, most recently there had been a failed crusade against Tunisia in 1390, and there was on

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The Battle of Nicopolis, as depicted by a Turkish miniaturist in 1588

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The crusaders took eight days to cross the Danube at the Iron Gate

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Titus Fay saves King Sigismund of Hungary in the Battle of Nicopolis. Painting in the Castle of Vaja, creation of Ferenc Lohr, 1896.

Crusade of Varna
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The Crusade of Varna was a string of events in 1443–44 between the crusaders and the Ottoman Empire. It culminated in a decisive Ottoman victory at the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444, after the war ended in 1430, the Ottomans returned to their earlier policy of controlling all lands south of the Danube. In 1432, Sultan Murad II began raiding i

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Painting by Stanisław Chlebowski portraying king Wladyslaw's death after the battle of Varna

Northern Crusades
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The crusades took place mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries and resulted in the conversion and baptism of indigenous peoples. Most notable campaigns were Livonian and Prussian crusades, some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th-century romanti

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Ruins of the castle in Sigulda.

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Norway

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Kuressaare Castle, Estonia, constructed by the Teutonic Order

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Tērvete castle hill in 2010.

Wendish Crusade
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By the early 12th century, the German archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg sought the conversion to Christianity of neighboring pagan West Slavs through peaceful means. During the preparation of the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, however, the Slavic leader Niklot preemptively invaded Wagria in June 1147, leading to the march of the crusaders la

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Wendish Crusade

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Henry's duchies Saxony and Bavaria

Second Swedish Crusade
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The Second Swedish Crusade was a Swedish military expedition to areas in present-day Finland by Birger Jarl in the 13th century. As a result of the crusade, the Swedish kingdom began to influence in western Finland. According to Erics Chronicle from ca, 1320-1340, the crusade took place between Birger Jarl getting elevated to the position of jarl i

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19th century representation of Birger Jarl, who started the Swedish conquest of Finland in 1249.

Livonian Crusade
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The lands on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea were the last corners of Europe to be Christianized. After the success of the crusade, the German- and Danish-occupied territory was divided into six feudal principalities by William of Modena, Christianity had come to Latvia with the settlement of Grobiņa by Swedes in the 7th century and the Danes

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Dannebrog falling from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse, 1219.

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Baltic Tribes, ca 1200.

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The 1241 Treaty between Livonian Order, Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek and Oeselians at National Archives of Sweden

Prussian Crusade
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The Prussian Crusade was a series of 13th-century campaigns of Roman Catholic crusaders, primarily led by the Teutonic Knights, to Christianize the pagan Old Prussians. Invited after earlier unsuccessful expeditions against the Prussians by Polish princes, by the end of the century, having quelled several Prussian Uprisings, the Knights had establi

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Hermann von Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

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Baltic tribes and Prussian clans ca. 1200.

People's Crusade
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The Peoples Crusade was the prelude to the First Crusade and lasted roughly six months from April to October 1096. It is also known as the Peasants Crusade, Paupers Crusade or the Popular Crusade as it was not part of the official Catholic Church-organised expeditions that came later. Led primarily by Peter the Hermit with forces of Walter Sans Avo

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The defeat of the People's Crusade

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Peter the Hermit Preaching the First Crusade - From the Painting by James Archer - from Cassell's History of England, Vol. I - anonymous author and artists

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Siege of Niš on 4 July 1096.

Children's Crusade
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The Childrens Crusade is the name given to a Crusade by European Christians to expel Muslims from the Holy Land said to have taken place in 1212. Early versions of events, of which there are many variations told over the centuries, are largely apocryphal, the variants of the long-standing story of the Childrens Crusade have similar themes. A boy be

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The Children's Crusade, by Gustave Doré

Shepherds' Crusade (1251)
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The Shepherds Crusade of 1251 was a popular movement in northern France aimed at rescuing King Louis IX during the Seventh Crusade. In 1249, Saint Louis IX of France was away on crusade leaving his mother, Blanche of Castile, Louis was defeated and captured in Egypt. Louis sent his brothers to France to get relief, where despite the efforts of Blan

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This Pedro Berruguete work of the 15th century depicts a story of Saint Dominic and the Albigensians, in which the texts of each were cast into a fire, but only Saint Dominic's proved miraculously resistant to the flames.

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A 1759 map entitled The Holy Land, or Palestine, showing not only the Ancient Kingdoms of Judah and Israel in which the 12 Tribes have been distinguished, but also their placement in different periods as indicated in the Holy Scriptures by Tobias Conrad Lotter, Geographer. Augsburg, Germany

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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Christianity, as it is the purported site of Christ's resurrection.

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Circa the 6th century BCE: In ancient times the Mediterranean provided sources of food and local commerce and direct routes for trade and communications, colonisation, and war. Numerous cities and colonies were situated at its shores or within the basin: Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow) colonies in antiquity; and other cities (grey), including the provincial "Rom".

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Map of the Mediterranean Sea

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With its highly indented coastline and large number of islands, Greece has the longest Mediterranean coastline.

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The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.

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The Tabula Rogeriana, an ancient world map drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154. Note that the north is at the bottom, and so the map appears "upside down" compared to modern cartographic conventions.

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From upper left: Jerusalem skyline viewed from Givat ha'Arba, Mamilla, the Old City and the Dome of the Rock, a souq in the Old City, the Knesset, the Western Wall, the Tower of David and the Ottoman Old City walls